The White House on Monday officially nominated Kathryn Huff to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, sending her nomination to the Senate about a month after announcing its intention to do so.
Next up for Huff, who the Joe Biden administration tapped Jan. 24 to become the deputy assistant secretary of nuclear energy (NE-1) in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, is a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. As of Monday evening, the committee had not scheduled a hearing.
Huff started her stint in the administration in May as the career No. 2 in the nuclear energy office, the deputy assistant secretary of nuclear energy. She had been the acting NE-1, too. However, Huff is now serving as a politically appointed senior advisor to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. DOE has not said why Huff was moved out of the nuclear energy office, though an agency spokesperson told Exchange Monitor last week that she would “remain in her current role” until confirmed to lead the nuclear energy office.
The NE-1 nominee is headed to the Senate after allegations made to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Feb. 2 by an unidentified DOE employee that a “former career Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary” of Nuclear Energy was reassigned as a senior advisor to the Secretary of Energy after becoming “circumspect” for engaging in prohibited personnel practices.
The employee alleged that “undue political influence and preferences were applied” at DOE to select Sam Brinton for the senior executive service position of deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition (NE-8) in the Office of Nuclear Energy.
As of Friday OPM had not said whether it was investigating that complaint.
