Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to resign Tuesday following a heated exchange over her past financial transactions.
Hawley's tense back-and-forth with Granholm came during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing held to review the Department of Energy's 2025 budget request. The Missouri Republican excoriated the energy secretary for violating the STOCK Act and for continuing to own shares of individual companies last year despite testifying that she did not own any individual stock.
"It is outrageous that you misled us. It is outrageous that you are continuing to mislead us," Hawley remarked. "This has got to change. And, frankly, you should go."
Early in her tenure leading the Department of Energy, it was revealed that Granholm violated the STOCK Act nine times by failing to disclose $240,000 worth of stock sales within the legally-mandated timeframe.
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And, separately, in a June 2023 letter to Energy and Natural Resource Committee leadership, Granholm said she owned shares of six unnamed individual companies worth up to $120,000 and that her husband owned $2,457.89 worth of shares in Ford Motor Company at the time of her under-oath testimony before the panel months prior.
During the April 20, 2023, hearing, Granholm told Hawley that she was "not owning individual stocks." After discovering her and her husband's ownership of stock, Granholm sold her husband's Ford shares on May 15, 2023, and sold her remaining individual stock holdings days later, according to her letter.
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"You neglected to report it to this committee for months afterwards," Hawley asked Granholm during the hearing Tuesday. "Why did you mislead this committee?"
"Oh, my goodness," Granholm responded. "I believed that I had sold all individual stocks and I was incorrect. So, I came back as soon as I found out that, in fact, I had not sold all individual stocks."
Hawley then interrupted her, noting that she waited a month before informing the committee of the transactions.
"I did not hide it because I brought it forth to the committee when I realized that we had made a mistake," Granholm added.
In addition, the GOP lawmaker also blasted Granholm for allowing agency employees to own individual stocks. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that hundreds of senior DOE officials own stocks related to the agency's work, a potential conflict-of-interest violation.
He said that senior DOE officials owning stocks reveals the "institutionalized corruption in the Department of Energy."
Granholm responded, saying officials strictly own stocks in companies in areas they do not have any influence over. She also said the agency has a strong ethics office that reviews relevant transactions.
