Sen. Warren Questions Whether ITA, BIS Officials Have Ethical Conflicts

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who's also running for president, has asked an ethics official in the Commerce Department to examine whether the head of the International Trade Administration and the acting undersecretary for Industry and Security have ethical conflicts in the steel and aluminum Section 232 exclusion process. Both ITA and the Bureau of Industry and Security are responsible for evaluating the exclusion requests, and BIS officials ultimately grant or reject the requests.

Warren, who sent her letter July 11, asked if Undersecretary Gilbert Kaplan and Acting Undersecretary Nazak Nikakhtar have had to recuse themselves when former clients have matters before the Commerce Department. Warren noted that Nikakhtar's former law firm represents U.S. Steel, which has made about 20 percent of the objections to exclusion requests. Warren wrote, "A company that wants to undermine an exclusion request can simply do so by submitting an objection, because doing so, regardless of the merits, will likely cause a delay in the decision and result in a rejection."

Warren cited in her letter a recent Office of Inspector General report on exclusions, which showed that clients of Kaplan's and Nikakhtar's former employers benefited from exclusions being rejected. Warren asked the ethics office to evaluate "to what extent do the ethics agreements signed by Ms. Nikakhtar and Mr. Kaplan cover their current participation in the administration of and decision-making process for the Section 232 tariff exclusion program? What actions by these individuals are allowed as part of these agreements? What actions are barred?"

She asked if either official has had to recuse himself or herself, and if so, asked for documents related to those recusals. She also asked if either official has ever requested or received a written waiver from the ethics agreements, and if so, asked for copies of the waivers.