All corrupt!

Dems target Natural Resources chair on stock purchases

Rep. Bruce Westerman says his financial adviser invested in oil and gas companies under the jurisdiction of the panel he chairs.

James Bikales

Democrats hammered Rep. Bruce Westerman on Tuesday for purchasing shares in companies affiliated with industries directly overseen by the House Natural Resources Committee, which the Arkansas Republican chairs.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) revealed the information during the panel’s markup of its portion of the party-line package, which Republicans say would raise $18 billion in revenue by boosting energy leasing on federal land and unlocking more coal, oil, gas and mineral production on public lands and waters.

Specifically, Westerman disclosed in an April filing that he had recently purchased shares in about 100 companies in the year’s first quarter, including energy-producing and mining companies such as BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Suncor, Freeport-McMoRan and Rio Tinto.

Westerman would be “benefitting” from the policy changes committee Republicans are set to endorse as part of the bill to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, Ansari contended during the markup, “thanks to the handout that we are giving to oil and gas companies.”

In an interview during a break in the proceedings, Westerman said the purchases were made by an investment adviser without his knowledge and that he was in the process of divesting them.

“As soon as I realized they had done that, I said, ‘Don’t invest in individual stocks, put it back into a fund,’” Westerman said he told his adviser. “That’s what they’re doing, or in the process of doing.”

“There was nothing wrong with what happened,” Westerman added, and he “totally” dismissed claims that he would benefit from his committee’s piece of the Republican megabill of tax cuts and extensions, border security investments, energy policy and more.