Committees Expected to Move Quickly on Already Cleared Noms, but Senate Floor Action Unclear
Todd Jacobson
WC Monitor
1/10/2014
The Obama Administration this week returned dozens of nominations to the Senate, including a handful of Department of Energy selections, and Senate committees began acting quickly to report out the nominations, with the Senate Armed Services Committee clearing the nomination of National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz late on Jan. 9. How quickly the nominees are considered on the Senate floor, however, remains an open question, according to Congressional aides. “We’re planning to move quickly to report many of the nominees who have already been approved by the committee,” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee spokesman Jason Chu, who added that a business meeting will likely be held this month to vote on a group of several nominees that likely includes Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance nominees Elizabeth Robinson and other DOE selections. NNSA nominees, like Klotz and Principal Deputy Administrator pick Madelyn Creedon, are under the separate jurisdiction of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
In all, the Administration renominated 10 officials for DOE appointments, and many had already had hearings and had been cleared by their respective committees. Nominees that already had hearings will not have to testify again, and getting the appointees through the various committees of jurisdiction is not expected to be difficult. “It’s not a big deal,” one Congressional aide said. “They could literally do it by the end of the week.” The move was necessary after late last week the Senate formally returned the nominations to the President because they were caught up in a dispute between Democrats and Republicans over new filibuster rules in the Senate and were not confirmed before the end of the year. It’s unclear how much the same dispute will carry over this year, though Congressional aides have suggested Republicans could continue to make it difficult for Democrats to get Administration officials confirmed.
In addition to Klotz, Creedon and Robinson, President Obama renominated seven other officials to DOE posts: Franklin Orr (Under Secretary of Energy for Science), Steven Croley (DOE General Counsel), Joseph Hezir (DOE Chief Financial Officer), Chris Smith (Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy), Jonathan Elkind (Assistant Secretary for International Affairs), Ellen Williams (Director of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy), and Marc Kastner (Director of DOE’s Office of Science).
