U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) yesterday, urging him to schedule an oversight hearing to investigate the false statements Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm admitted to making to Senator Hawley during an April committee hearing. During the hearing, Secretary Granholm claimed she did not own any personal financial stocks, when in fact, she held individual stocks as recently as May of this year.
“I write in response to Secretary Granholm’s letter to the committee dated June 9, 2023 admitting that she made false statements concerning her ownership of individual stocks,” wrote Senator Hawley. “Secretary Granholm needs to return to the committee to correct the record and clarify her compliance—and the entire Department’s compliance—with federal ethics laws. I urge you to schedule an oversight hearing as soon as practicable to investigate this matter.”
He continued, “These latest revelations come in the context of an Energy Department that has been reported to have serious, systemic problems with ethics compliance when it comes to stock ownership and conflicts of interest. I therefore urge you to convene a hearing with Secretary Granholm to discuss both Secretary’s false testimony and the steps the Department is taking to ensure senior officials properly comply with federal ethics laws.”
Earlier this month, Senator Hawley sent a letter to Secretary Granholm demanding an explanation for the misleading statements she made to him during the April committee hearing.
Read the full letter here or below.
June 21, 2023
The Honorable Joe Manchin
Chairman
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
United States Senate
Washington, 20510
Chairman Manchin:
I write in response to Secretary Granholm’s letter to the committee dated June 9, 2023 admitting that she made false statements concerning her ownership of individual stocks. Secretary Granholm needs to return to the committee to correct the record and clarify her compliance—and the entire Department’s compliance—with federal ethics laws. I urge you to schedule an oversight hearing as soon as practicable to investigate this matter.
Shortly after Secretary Granholm assumed office, Ranking Member Barrasso raised concerns with the Department of Energy Inspector General about her conflicts of interest. Later that year, Secretary Granholm violated conflict of interest laws by improperly disclosing her stock sales. According to reports, she sold $240,000 in stock in April 2021 and October 2021 but failed to disclose these trades until December 2021—after the deadline set by federal law. Then, earlier this year, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that “hundreds of Energy Department officials hold stocks related to agency’s work despite warnings.” This has prompted some of us to develop legislation and conduct oversight of energy officials’ conflicts of interest.
On April 20, Secretary Granholm appeared before this committee. In light of these various reports, I specifically asked her “Do you own individual stocks?” She testified, “No, I’m invested in mutual funds.” She repeated this line twice more. In total, she told this committee three times that she did not own any individual stocks.
But now she tells us that was not true. On June 9, she notified the committee that, contrary to her testimony, she did in fact hold stock in at least six individual companies on April 20. She then divested from these holdings on May 18. But she elected not to apprise this committee of her misstatement or her stock transactions until this month—seven weeks after the hearing and three weeks after she sold her stocks.
The facts of Secretary Granholm’s case are disturbing. How do you not know that you own stocks in individual companies? How do you not verify this after you were caught violating ethics laws the first time? And why did she wait seven weeks to correct the record? These latest revelations come in the context of an Energy Department that has been reported to have serious, systemic problems with ethics compliance when it comes to stock ownership and conflicts of interest. I therefore urge you to convene a hearing with Secretary Granholm to discuss both Secretary’s false testimony and the steps the Department is taking to ensure senior officials properly comply with federal ethics laws.
Sincerely,
Josh Hawley
United States Senator