Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is under investigation by a House panel for possible conflicts of interest, including an examination of whether Chao used her official position to benefit herself and her family business.
In a letter sent to Chao on Monday, the Democrat-led House Oversight Committee requested information related to her ties to Foremost Group, an American shipping company headquartered in New York that is owned by Chao’s father and sisters.
Although Chao holds no formal stake in the company, her high status as a U.S. official and her marriage to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
“Several allegations,” which include media reports, indicate Chao may have broken federal regulations by using her role as secretary to “increase its influence and status with the Chinese government, which has extended hundreds of millions of dollars in low-interest loans to the company for the purchase of foreign-flagged ships,” according to Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy.
Among the events under scrutiny are Chao reportedly appearing beside her father James Chao for at least a dozen Chinese media interviews, including some with the official seal of the Department of Transportation visible, and his boasts of access to President Trump on Air Force One.
More questions arose about Chao’s involvement in “decisions to deprioritize or defund” agency programs that benefit U.S.-flagged ships in foreign trade. The letter notes this could benefit Chao’s family business, which owns foreign-flagged ships.
Congressional investigators are also looking into why Chao did not immediately sell her stock holdings in the large construction company Vulcan Materials Company, which she had pledged to do prior to her confirmation hearing in January 2017. Chao divested on June 3, only after the Wall Street Journal reported that she had not yet done so.
In a letter sent to the Office of Government Ethics on June 13, a Transportation Department lawyer acknowledged an “inadvertent misstatements of fact” on Chao’s financial disclosure form in 2018 and ethics agreement, but also asserted there was no conflict of interest.
Cummings and Krishnamoorthi requested that Chao provide information and documents, listed in the letter, by Sept. 30.
A DOT spokesperson said the agency has received the letter from the oversight panel, stressing that they seek information on topics based on publicly available information and news coverage. “We look forward to responding to the Committee’s request. Media attacks targeting the Secretary’s family are stale and only attempt to undermine her long career of public service,” the spokesperson said.
