President Donald Trump’s nominee to sit on the board of the largest federally owned public utility, Lee Beaman, has never worked in energy or utilities.
He is, however, a major MAGA donor and the owner of the Capitol Hill townhome where Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Andy Ogles reportedly lived earlier this year alongside evangelical pastor Steve Berger. ProPublica reported that the home is a centerpiece of Berger’s evangelical “influence project.”
On Wednesday morning, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the Republican chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, postponed the committee’s scheduled vote to advance Beaman’s nomination for a seat on the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
“There were some additional questions I think that they wanted to be asked before we made the vote,” Capito said to NOTUS about the postponement. She would not provide any additional information. Sen. Lindsey Graham, another Republican on the committee, told NOTUS he didn’t know why the vote was cancelled.
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Documents Beaman provided the senators after his confirmation hearing last week, which NOTUS obtained, give a fuller picture of the ties he has to House Republicans and Christian influence groups.
Beaman told the Senate committee that he rents out two adjacent Washington townhomes, together worth more than an estimated $5 million, for $1 to Berger’s evangelical group, according to documents obtained by NOTUS. Berger’s group could be responsible for other expenses related to the property, per the type of rental agreement.
Beaman characterized the Capitol Hill properties, which have 9 bedrooms between them, as an “investment.”
He told the Senate committee that he has no knowledge of how Berger’s organization may sublease the houses or the tenants in the houses.
He also shared with the committee that in addition to the townhome rentals, his family foundation has donated $85,000 to Berger’s organization in the last several years.
Beaman also told the committee that he was contacted by the House Ethics Committee in September of this year about its investigation into Ogles, who is under investigation for campaign finance discrepancies.
Beaman responded in writing to questions from the House Ethics Committee in September, according to the documents reviewed by NOTUS.
Beaman has donated to Ogles’ campaign in the past and was at one point listed as the treasurer of his campaign, although he told the committee that he never actually served in the role and was listed mistakenly. ProPublica reported that Ogles at one point had keys to one of Beaman’s Washington townhomes.
The documents reviewed by NOTUS also revealed that Beaman’s family foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to MAGA-aligned political groups and Christian influence organizations.
Some of the largest donations include $100,000 in 2025 to the political organization the Conservative Partnership Institute, as well as $50,000 apiece to Turning Point USA and TPUSA Faith, the youth conservative organizations founded by Charlie Kirk. He also donated $25,000 this year to The Center for Renewing America, an organization founded by Russell Vought, who serves as the Office of Management and Budget’s director in the White House.
His foundation’s religious donations include more than $250,000 over the last five years to an organization called Men of Valor, which describes itself as “winning men in prison to Jesus Christ and discipling them.”
And in 2020, he donated $10,000 to Promise Keepers, an organization whose leaders oppose same-sex marriage and advocate for a return to traditional Christian values.
Trump nominated Beaman in late June to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, after firing three Biden-appointed members of the board in the previous months.
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