{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/biden-energy-official-freezes-when-pressed-pay-play-events/", "Biden Energy Official Freezes Up When Pressed on Pay-to-Play Events", "2023-10-19", "2023", "2023-10", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned two officials from the Department of Energy (DOE), Jigar Shah, the Director of Loan Programs, and Teri L. Donaldson, the Inspector General about pay-to-play events and insider stock trading.\n\nWhen Senator Hawley pressed Director Shah about the unethical nature of the pay-to-play events DOE officials attend and often speak at, the Director had no response.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re the Director of the loan programs for the federal government Department of Energy. People who want to get loans from the government are paying to see you and you think that that\u2019s fine?\u201d asked Senator Hawley.\n\nDirector Shah went silent.\n\nSenator Hawley also called on Inspector General Donaldson to investigate the ethical lapses at the DOE, such as illegal stock trading by Department officials, in light of reports that hundreds of DOE officials hold stocks related to the agency\u2019s work.\n\n\u201cI am firmly of the view that we need to change the law here,\u201d said Senator Hawley. \u201cSenior executive branch officials should not be able to own individual stock, nor should members of Congress. We shouldn\u2019t be stock trading.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:43:12Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/biden-energy-official-freezes-when-pressed-pay-play-events/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8147279731929302, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}