The Senate on Thursday narrowly approved President Joe Biden’s (D) nominee to fill the last open spot on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The nominee, Matthew Marzano, made it through 50-45, with five Senators not voting. He needed the support of a majority of voting Senators and got it, ensuring that for most of the second term of President-elect Donald Trump (R), Democrats will have a majority on the NRC.
With five Senators not voting, Marzano was confirmed over the opposition of all the chamber’s voting Republicans, plus Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.), the former Democrat who did not run for reelection but caucuses with Democrats.
Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), another former Democrat who did not run for reelection, voted for Marzano.
Earlier in the day, Manchin joined with Sinema to sink a separate Biden nominee who if confirmed would have given Democrats a majority on the National Labor Relations Board. Counting Sinema and Manchin, who both left the Democratic party this year, Democrats hold 51 seats in the current lame-duck session of Congress, which will end Jan. 3.
Marzano now will serve on the NRC until June 30, 2028, ensuring a 3-5 Democratic majority on the commission until June 30, 2027, when Commission Bradley Crowell’s term expires. That would be more than three years into Trump’s four-year term, which begins Jan. 20. Marzano will be the first licensed senior reactor operator to sit on the NRC in decades.
The commission may by law have no more than three members who belong to the same political party. It currently has two Democrats, including Chair Christopher Hanson, two Republicans and one vacancy.
After a generally cordial nomination hearing before November’s presidential election, Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee universally opposed Marzano’s nomination after the election, saying he lacked experience and that the experience he had made him better suited to following regulations than making them.
