Press Releases
Senators Renew Calls for DeVos to Come Clean on Dark Money Ties
Washington, DC - Today, after receiving no responsive information to previous requests, several members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) renewed their request to President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Elisabeth DeVos, to come clean about her connections to "dark money" groups. These groups, also known as 501(c)(4)s, allow political donors to avoid disclosing their identity and affiliations. DeVos has been directly involved in fundraisi… Continue Reading
01.26.17
Whitehouse Announces Opposition to DeVos Nomination
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, issued the following statement today on the nomination of Elisabeth DeVos to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education: "Every Rhode Island student deserves the chance to learn and gain the skills they need to get ahead. The mission of the U.S. Department of Education is to give them that chance. Promoting quality education for children no matter where they live require… Continue Reading
01.26.17
Whitehouse Announces Opposition to Tillerson Nomination
Washington, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the following statement on the nomination of Rex Wayne Tillerson to serve as U.S. Secretary of State: "The United States represents to the world a model of democratic leadership and honesty. "Rex Tillerson has spent his career in an international oil company that was cozy with the worst foreign governments, particularly with Vladimir Putin's Russia, and that has been fundamentally dishonest with the world as to what Exxon knew… Continue Reading
01.26.17
Whitehouse Slams Pruitt’s Evasive Responses to Post-Hearing Questions
Washington, DC - Scott Pruitt, President Trump's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, drew a stiff rebuke from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for his evasive, misleading, or demonstrably false answers to Senators' questions for the record following Pruitt's confirmation hearing. Pruitt provided responses to Environment and Public Works Committee members' post-hearing questions for the record late Tuesday night. In the following statement, Whitehouse asks the still unanswered que… Continue Reading
01.24.17
Senators to Pruitt: Explain Yourself to the American People
Washington, DC - Senate Democrats want real answers from Donald Trump's nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt. After receiving evasive, misleading, and incomplete answers to their questions during his testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Committee members wrote to Pruitt today asking him to explain further his dubious record on environmental protection as Oklahoma Attorney General, his involvement in fundraising for shadowy dark money gr… Continue Reading
01.24.17
Whitehouse Presses Trump OMB Nominee on Tax Giveaways
Washington, DC - Today during a confirmation hearing held by the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse questioned President Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), about billions of dollars in wasteful spending through the tax code-on credits, deductions, and special rates for the wealthy and well-connected. Whitehouse pushed Mulvaney to address tax expenditures as OMB Director, should he be confirmed, to which Mulv… Continue Reading
01.24.17
Whitehouse Statement on Keystone XL and Dakota Access Executive Orders
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the following statement on the executive orders signed today by President Donald Trump advancing the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects: "Allowing the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines to move forward is yet another example of President Trump putting fossil fuel interests first, ahead of the wellbeing of the American people. "The Keystone XL Pipeline would be a disaster for Americans' health and our environment, bot… Continue Reading
01.24.17
Whitehouse Announces Opposition to Sessions Nomination
Washington, DC - Following a business meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse released the following statement with regard to the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to be U.S. Attorney General: "I have reviewed Senator Sessions's career as an attorney and in public office, as well as his testimony before the Judiciary Committee. I have reflected on my time as an Attorney General and U.S. Attorney in Rhode Island, where my job was to enforce the law f… Continue Reading
01.24.17
Whitehouse, Brown, Franken, Schakowsky Introduce Public Option for Obamacare
Washington, D.C. - As congressional Republicans try to tear down the law that has extended health insurance coverage to over 20 million Americans, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Al Franken (D-MN) and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) have introduced the Consumer Health Options and Insurance Competition Enhancement (CHOICE) Act, to add a publicly operated health insurance option to individual marketplaces. The measure is intended to guarantee American consumers a… Continue Reading
01.24.17
Grijalva, Whitehouse to Trump: Keep Climate Denying Industry Shill Away from NOAA
Washington, D.C. - Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to President Donald Trump today, urging him to remove a notorious climate change denier from his landing team at the Department of Commerce (DOC), which includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Kenneth Haapala, president of the oil industry funded Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) at the Heartland Instit… Continue Reading
01.20.17
Whitehouse Statement on the Presidential Inauguration
Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse today released the following statement on President Donald Trump's inauguration: "As we observe the peaceful transfer of power, I'm grateful today to President Obama for his service to our country, and for the unfailing dignity and grace he and his family brought to the White House. Leader Schumer today shared with our nation the noble words of Smithfield-born Sullivan Ballou, Major of the Second Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry, made famous in K… Continue Reading
01.19.17
Whitehouse Statement on Price Hearing
Washington, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questioned Congressman Tom Price (R-GA), President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, at a nomination hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Whitehouse issued the following statement regarding Price's testimony: "Tom Price hasn't been able to win Democratic support for any of his health care legislation and today confirmed that he and his allies have no … Continue Reading
01.18.17
Whitehouse: What is Scott Pruitt Hiding?
Washington, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joined the other members of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee at the confirmation hearing for E. Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Whitehouse raised a series of questions about Pruitt's long-standing ties to industries he would regulate if confirmed and his lack of responsiveness to inquiries about those ties. Those ties, and Pruitt's actions on behalf of industries he has r… Continue Reading
01.18.17
Whitehouse to Join Women’s March on Washington
Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is set to join hundreds of thousands of women from across the country in what promises to be a historic Women's March on Washington on Saturday, January 21. The event is scheduled for the day after President-elect Donald Trump will take office. "I will march arm-in-arm with women from Rhode Island and across the country to send a clear message to the Trump administration that when it comes to protecting the hard-fought rights of women, we are go… Continue Reading
01.18.17
Whitehouse Stands Up for RI Fishermen, Environment in Pruitt Hearing
Washington, DC - In a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse today asked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whether he would support the fishing and aquaculture industries in the face of climate change, and whether he would protect Rhode Islanders from out-of-state polluters. "As we discussed when you and I met, the oceans off our Oc… Continue Reading
01.18.17
Whitehouse Statement on DeVos Confirmation Hearing
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, released the following statement on the confirmation hearing of Elisabeth DeVos to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, which the Committee held last night: "Rhode Islanders have serious concerns about Mrs. DeVos's nomination and last night's hasty, after-hours hearing didn't come close to addressing them. In fact, her testimony raised more questions than it… Continue Reading
01.17.17
Ethics Officials Confirm Gap in Reporting Laws for Dark Money
Washington, DC - Today, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) top ethics official responded to Senate letters regarding EPA Administrator nominee Scott Pruitt and revealed a significant gap in ethics reporting requirements that allows cabinet nominees to avoid disclosing potentially serious conflicts of interest. "These letters make it clear that it's on Scott Pruitt to come clean to the United States Senate about the kind of dark money influence… Continue Reading
01.13.17
Senator “Shocked” at Outpouring of Support for Pruitt from Koch Front Groups
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) reacted today to a letter released by 24 groups supporting the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. "I am 'shocked, shocked' that the vast network of Koch brothers front groups have put their logos on a letterhead for Scott Pruitt. Actually, I'm only surprised it took so long. Of course front groups who have vowed to prevent congressional action on climate change have weighed in to support a m… Continue Reading
01.12.17
Whitehouse Dedicates Vote Against Fast Tracking Affordable Care Act Repeal to Woonsocket Teen
Washington, DC - In the early hours of the morning on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse today cast his vote against a Republican budget resolution aimed at fast tracking repeal of the Affordable Care Act in honor of Charlie, a 14-year-old boy from Woonsocket. "I am going to do everything in my power to fight the attempt to take away the affordable health care that Charlie and tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders rely on," said Whitehouse. "Without the Affordable Care Ac… Continue Reading
01.12.17
EPW Members Push for Answers on Pruitt Ethics Concerns
Washington, D.C. - Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sent letters to the Office of Government Ethics and the lead ethics official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today asking a series of questions related to the ethics review of President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for EPA Administrator, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. In their letter to the Office of Government Ethics, the Senators ask about Pruitt's obligation to disclose critical information … Continue Reading
