Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, is under scrutiny following allegations of a potential conflict of interest involving his wife’s environmental nonprofit organization. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog group, has called for an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics into Senator Whitehouse’s legislative actions that may have financially benefited his spouse’s organization.
Sandra Whitehouse, the senator’s wife, serves as president of Ocean Wonks LLC, a consulting firm she established in 2017. Prior to this, she was a senior policy adviser at Ocean Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit. Since 2008, Ocean Conservancy has received over $14.2 million in federal grants, including a $5.2 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in September 2024 for marine debris cleanup, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Senator Whitehouse supported. Additionally, the organization secured a $1.7 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for similar purposes, also backed by the senator.
FACT’s Executive Director, Kendra Arnold, emphasized the seriousness of the situation, saying “”While these two grants alone appear to be a conflict of interest, it is even more egregious in the context of Senator Whitehouse’s long history of working on legislation being lobbied for by organizations tied to his wife.”
The watchdog group highlighted that Ocean Conservancy has invested millions in federal lobbying efforts on issues closely aligned with the senator’s legislative agenda, particularly in areas related to oceans, climate change, and environmental cleanup.
Financial records indicate that since 2010, Sandra Whitehouse has received approximately $2.7 million in compensation from Ocean Conservancy, either directly or through her consulting firm. These revelations have prompted calls for a thorough investigation to determine whether Senator Whitehouse’s legislative actions constitute a breach of Senate ethics rules concerning conflicts of interest.
