Image: Republican donor Lee Beaman of Nashville failed to be confirmed to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board by the U.S. Senate. Image Credit: Screengrab from Beaman’s Senate hearing, C-SPAN.
***Note from The Tennessee Conservative – this article posted here for informational purposes only.
By Sam Stockard [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
The U.S. Senate confirmed four Trump nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors Wednesday night but left out Nashville car magnate and political donor Lee Beaman.
Beaman was removed from the nomination process and would have to receive a new nomination to be considered for the post, according to the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group that monitors TVA appointments.
Senators voted 53-47 to confirm Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood, Randall Jones and Arthur Graham. President Donald Trump also nominated Beaman to serve on the board for the federally-owned utility that provides power to seven states in the Southeast, including Tennessee, but his nomination stalled in a committee last week.
The nominations came after Trump removed Biden appointees to the board after taking office, leaving it without enough members for a quorum to hold votes.
“At a time when Americans across the nation are struggling to pay their energy bills, it’s even more important that a utility as unique as TVA be responsible and compassionate to the needs of its ratepayers,” the Sierra Club said in a statement. “We welcome the return of a functional, voting board and are here to work with them to keep power in the public’s hands and protect this beautiful region we call home.”
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works postponed Beaman’s confirmation vote last week amid questions about two Washington, D.C. rowhouses he owns that are rented to members of Congress through a nonprofit organization run by his pastor, Steve Berger.
Democrat senators also raised questions about Beaman’s connection to U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, a Columbia Republican targeted by the House Ethics Committee, which found he likely violated campaign finance laws by reporting an inflated personal loan of $320,000 to make his bid for office look stronger in 2022. Beaman was listed as campaign treasurer for four months in 2022 as questions surfaced about Ogles’ fundraising.
Beaman told senators in his initial hearing that he was Ogles’ treasurer for only four months, but in written responses to questions, he said he never agreed to serve in the post while also acknowledging he thought it was only an “honorary” position. He said he asked to be removed from the job after seeing his name on a political ad.
Besides problems with Ogles’ fundraising, Beaman told the committee in written responses he bought two houses totaling 6,500 square feet in D.C. in the name of Crockett Ventures and leased them to the nonprofit organization Ambassador Services International for $1 a year. The group is run by Berger, who accompanied Beaman at his first hearing and has made inflammatory statements about LGBTQ people, saying he wants to beat them to death with a baseball bat.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Ogles are among the members of Congress believed to be living in the row houses, creating a conflict of interest for Beaman to serve on the TVA board, senators said.
Beaman told senators in written responses that he has no interest or control over the nonprofit organization, nor does he make decisions about who sub-leases from Ambassador Services International.
Yet Democrat senators also raised the issue that Berger could be considered a lobbyist under federal law, creating another conflict of interest for the tenants and Beaman. Berger founded a “discipleship program in Washington, D.C. to educate, equip, and inspire statesmen to live with compassion and confidence during their time in public service,” according to the transcript.
Beaman, a major Republican political donor, planned to raise $4 million in 2017 when Ogles announced a U.S. Senate bid that never took off. He also served as treasurer for U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps, who recently took office after winning a special election to replace Mark Green.
2 Responses
TVA MUST BE DISMANTLED. TVA is terrorizing and pressuring people of middle TN to give them or sell their long-held family properties to TVA. TVA is a criminal entity created under FDR and it has been given uncheck and unquestioned power. They terrorize and harass property owners who TVA thinks cannot and will not be able to fight them. This is demonic. The fact TVA even has power outside of TN evidences overreach and power, a grip an control it should not have. Those “elected” to run TVA are elected by elitists, not the people.
I’m sure Lee Beaman is no saint, but having known and done business with him for 50 years, I KNOW he is as ‘above reproach’ as any wealthy business man in the U.S.! Leave it to Demoncrats to search for and find a ‘needle’ in a hay stack on a strong, Christian, conservative businessman….shame on GOP Senators for not pushing back harder! But, we ALL know that a leftist nominee that is as clean as Lee Beaman, would likely pass with a super majority of support from both sides of the aisle! DC is a nasty, swamp and the only survivors are as corrupt as the beast who live in one!