Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has been thrust into the limelight after a new complaint was filed against him for voting to pass laws that funded millions of dollars in grants given to an organization that funds his wife’s consultancy firm.
Who is Sandra Whitehouse, his wife?
Whitehouse, like her husband, who is now a senator, earned a bachelor’s at Yale University. She earned her Master’s Degree at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. She married Sheldon Whitehouse in 1986 in the St. George’s School Chapel, Newport, Rhode Island.
According to the Senator’s site, the couple lives in Newport and has two children, Molly and Alexander. They also have two grandchildren.
Whitehouse, who was at one time a senior non-resident fellow of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, has worked with nonprofits, government agencies, state agencies, legislative bodies, and private firms.
Her husband was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. She first began working for the group at the center of the latest ethics complaint roughly two years later, in 2008.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Whitehouse began working at Ocean Conservancy as early as September 2008. Whitehouse was a senior advisor, and consulting included strategic advice to the Executive Team and Program Directors and raising awareness about ocean policy issues in various workshops and conferences, as well as engaging key stakeholders with Ocean Conservancy’s mission. Climate change, plastic waste, and ocean planning are some of the policy areas that she focuses on.
Whitehouse, who is not employed directly by Ocean Conservancy anymore, does receive payment from the organisation for her consulting firm, Ocean Wonks LLC.
According to LinkedIn, in 2017, she became the president of Ocean Wonks LLC. In this role, “she consults with various non-profits, using decades of experience in scientific, regulatory and policy matters to advocate and educate about ocean policy.”
According to USASpending.gov, Ocean Conservancy has received federal grants totaling more than $14 million since 2008. In 2024 alone, it received two large grants. One for $5.2 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the other for $1.7 from the Environmental Protection Agency. Both were for the cleanup of marine debris. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funded the first, and the EPA annual appropriations act funded the second. Both were approved by the senator.
Tax documents show that Ocean Conservancy has paid Whitehouse $2,686,800 in total either directly to her or via her company since 2010.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, an ethics monitor, cited this in a complaint sent last month to Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chair James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Vice-Chairman Chris Coons (D-Del.).
Stephen DeLeo, Whitehouse’s spokesperson, said, “This dark money act is being repeated, as the Senate Ethics Committee has previously rejected a previous dark money attempt to spread these smears.” “The billionaires behind FACT and Supreme Court capture agents would like to prevent Senator Whitehouse from shining light on their actions to deny regular people a fair chance before the Court.”
He added that “false accusations by far-right special interest groups and billionaires” would not hinder the senator’s efforts to create an ethical, accountable government that responds effectively to American needs.
Whitehouse’s office also provided a letter to Fox News Digital from the committee last year informing another watchdog group, Judicial Watch, that the senator’s actions did not violate “federal laws, Senate rules, or other standards of conduct.”
This group filed an ethics complaint with FACT.
