Missouri Congressman grills Department of Energy Secretary

WASHINGTON — In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing yesterday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm about the troubling reports that nearly one-third of the Energy Department’s senior officials or their families owned stocks related to the agency’s work.

At the end of his questioning, Secretary Granholm expressed support Senator Hawley’s Eliminating Executive Branch Insider Trading Act, which would ban the trading and holding of individual stocks by senior Executive Branch officials. Granholm also expressed support for a stock trading ban for members of Congress. Earlier this year, Senator Hawley introduced the PELOSI Act to ban members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks.

“Well I’ll tell you what—I think I’ve got a solution, which is, let’s just ban it. Let’s ban it for all Executive Department officials. Let’s ban it for members of Congress,” said Senator Hawley. “How about that?”

“I would not object to that,” responded Secretary Granholm.

Watch their full exchange here.