Ethics watchdog the Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust (FACT) on Tuesday filed a complaint accusing Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., of violating Senate ethics policy by advocating for legislation to award his wife’s nonprofit $7 million.
The senator’s wife Sandra Whitehouse works for the advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, which received over $14 million in government grants since she started in 2008. Half of this money came in fall 2024 alone and was supported by Sen. Whitehouse, FACT wrote.
Senator Whitehouse said that his wife received no pay and that he had been cleared of the same a year ago.
Sandra Whitehouse holds a Ph.D. in marine biology and has been a senior policy advisor to the Ocean Conservancy, a major environmental group, since 2008. Ocean Conservancy’s most recent tax filing shows its $52 million budget for the 2023 fiscal year included $280,000 paid to Sandra Whitehouse’s firm, Ocean Wonks LLC.
Senator Whitehouse’s most recent financial disclosure form shows his wife had two sources of self-employment income in 2023, one being Ocean Conservancy, and the other Running Tides Technologies Inc., a Maine-based carbon-removal startup that shut down last year.
Kendra Arnold, FACT’s executive director, noted that Ocean Conservancy has received $6.9 million in federal grants in recent years funded by either the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law or the 2024 appropriations act. Whitehouse voted for both measures, which passed the Senate by votes of 69-30 and 75-22, respectively.
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