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Wednesday, Feb 17, 2021

Did the new Defense Secretary extend his recusal from matters involving Raytheon?

Stevie Rosignol-Cortez, Gigafact Foundry
yes

Lloyd Austin, the retired general who is now Secretary of Defense under President Biden, was previously on the board of Raytheon Technologies, a major defense contractor. In his confirmation hearing, he pledged to recuse himself from all matters involving the company for four years, going beyond legal requirements that he do so for one year. He also in his ethics disclosure outlined plans to divest holdings in the company and related entities.

Raytheon has been a military contractor since World War II, and became the second-largest last year in a merger with United Technologies (where Austin became a board member in 2016).

“Recusal isn’t a panacea,” a watchdog group cautions, given Raytheon’s share of both sales to the Pentagon and to foreign governments requiring U.S. approval. “Current ethics laws and executive orders are far from sufficient” to avoid conflicts of interest, it contends.

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