Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) peppered questions at Department of Energy official Jigar Shah to understand Shah's involvement at paid events.

Shah is the head of the Energy Department's loan program and is a decision-maker on who receives government assistance. As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Hawley asked Shah if he noted any possible conflicts of interest from attending conferences at which attendees, who could be interested in an Energy Department loan, pay to hear the official speak. Shah clarified that he is not paid but confirmed he purposefully attends events he knows others are paying to get in the door.

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“You’re going to events where people are paying to see you, who want money from the government,” Hawley said. “You're the director of the loan program. You think that that's OK? You don't see a conflict of interest?”

Hawley posted a clip of his interrogation on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: "Biden DOE official acts like a deer in the headlights when I ask him about his pay-to-play speaking events."

"In July, Team Biden touted this official as the '$400 billion man' — but today he testified that he’s so unimportant it is fine for him to go to pay-to-play dinners with industry insiders," Hawley wrote, referring to the budget allotted to the loan program.

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The Department of Energy agreed to loan Ford and its battery manufacturing partner $9.2 billion in June to finance the construction of three electric vehicle battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, a program that has come under fire by the United Auto Workers union, which has been on strike for 34 days as of Thursday.

Shah told Reuters at the time that the goal of the new loan "is to have people choose to put these supply chains here in the United States, not in other countries, and to do them faster and more confidently here."