Democratic Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin promoted federal grants for her landlord’s company, despite previous denials from her campaign, according to a letter to a Department of Energy subagency obtained by the Daily Caller.
Slotkin, a second-term representative, moved from the 8th to the 7th District after the Michigan legislature redrew its congressional boundaries. The congresswoman changed her voter registration address in May 2022 to a condominium in Lansing, according to voter registration records reviewed by the Daily Caller. The condo is owned by donor Jerry Hollister, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Government Relations at Niowave Inc., a medical company that employs nuclear technology.
Slotkin’s campaign denied any wrongdoing to Fox Digital, which first reported that she was living in Hollister’s home. Hollister has donated $2900 to Slotkin since 2018 through her campaign committee and ActBlue. The campaign claimed that Slotkin’s office had not “advocated for” or been “involved in” any federal contracts or funds accessed by Niowave, according to the outlet.
Despite the campaign’s claims, four members of Michigan’s congressional delegation, including Slotkin, promoted the NNSA program that funded Niowave in a December 2020 letter to Acting Administrator Dr. William Bookless.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) first awarded Niowave a $13 million contract in December 2021 to produce Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which is used in radiology.
“To accelerate the production of a stable, domestic supply of Mo-99, Congress has continued to provide funding that has resulted in new, competitively-awarded cooperative agreements with partners across the country, including in Michigan. We support NNSA’s criteria to ensure that the awarding partners demonstrate the ability to Mo-99 production of at least one quarter of the current U.S. production by Dec. 31, 2023,” Democratic Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, and Slotkin wrote.
“We continue to encourage NNSA to support partners that use resources from existing Department of Energy user facilities,” the officials added.
Read the letter here:
Slotkin Letter by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd
Niowave also received a $15 million Mo-99 production grant as part of a funds matching program in July 2019. Two other pharmaceutical companies received similar grants from NNSA as part of that tranche. Both are located in Wisconsin.
Overall, Niowave has received $28,319,827 in taxpayer dollars across three federal grants and one contract since Slotkin took office in 2019. At the time the members submitted the letter, Hollister had given $875 to Slotkin since she entered Congress. Hollister has also donated to Peters’ and Stabenow’s campaigns.
“Members of Congress are allowed to advocate on behalf of their constituents, including those who donate to them. However, the relationship here appears unusually close,” ethics attorney Gary Lawkowski told the Daily Caller, citing Hollister’s status as Slotkin’s landlord. (RELATED: Democratic Rep. James Clyburn Shells Out Thousands In Campaign Funds To Family Members)
The Slotkin campaign noted a similar letter signed onto by Republican Rep. Mike Bishop, who Slotkin defeated, in 2018, in a statement to the Daily Caller.
“Representative Slotkin joined a bipartisan group of both U.S. Senators and a Republican colleague to advocate for returning domestic manufacturing to America from China. In 2018, her Republican predecessor from MI-08 sent the same letter, advocating for the same thing. That’s because rebuilding America’s supply chains is not partisan, and it’s not political. Nowhere in this letter was any specific company singled out — instead, the bipartisan signatories advocated for concrete steps to bolster U.S. supply chains and our national security. Anyone suggesting anything inappropriate in this letter is not being honest about its content and obvious purpose: to strengthen American manufacturing,” campaign spokesperson Lynsey Mukomel said.