The Joe Biden administration’s pick to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear power section is one step closer to the job after clearing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Thursday on a voice vote.
Kathryn Huff, who the White House nominated in January to become assistant secretary for nuclear energy (NE-1) in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, made it through the upper chamber’s energy panel on a voice vote during a business meeting Thursday.
Both Democratic and Republican leaders of the committee voiced their support for Huff during the meeting. After that, members approved her for the job on a voice vote. Next up for Huff is a vote on the Senate floor, where she’ll need the support of at least 51 senators to clinch her nomination. As of Thursday morning, such a vote had yet to be scheduled.
Huff “has demonstrated her ability to handle the job of her performance as the acting assistant secretary over the past year, where she showed a firm grasp of issues,” committee chairman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) said.
Ranking member Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said that Huff “appears to be extremely well-qualified” for the role. “We need to be looking for opportunities to expand our use of nuclear energy, and I believe Dr. Huff is ready to accept that responsibility,” he said.
It wouldn’t be Huff’s first time in the big chair at the Office of Nuclear Energy. By the time of her nomination in January, the former assistant professor of nuclear engineering was in the midst of a nine-month stint as the office’s acting head. Following a controversial personnel decision that generated at least one allegation of hiring malpractice, DOE earlier this year moved Huff into a new role: senior advisor to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
None of that came up in Thursday’s business meeting.
