Clock expires on Ike White’s nomination to DNFSB

The 118th Congress ended Friday Jan. 3 without the Senate voting to confirm President Joe Biden’s nomination of William (Ike) White, to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

So the nomination of White, a longtime fed and former acting head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, was returned to the president that day under the standing rules of the Senate.

In addition, two nuclear industry executives told Exchange Monitor Tuesday White planned to file retirement papers with DOE.

White was nominated to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) by Democrat Biden but was appointed as acting head of DOE’s multi-billion-dollar Office of Environmental Management during the first presidential administration of President Donald Trump, a Republican. 

Both industry sources mentioned that Paul Dabbar, DOE’s undersecretary of science during the first Trump administration, is on the president-elect’s DOE transition team. This landing team is led by longtime DOE hand Ted Garrish. Wells Griffth, an energy policy adviser during the first Trump term, is reportedly also on the transition team.

But even if the incoming Trump team is open to reviving the nomination, White might have decided he is done with federal service after more than 30 years in government, one of the sources said.

White was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in September after Biden nominated him in May.  After the nomination, White became a special adviser within DOE, and the Biden administration tapped Candice Robertson to run Environmental Management.

White became acting head of Environmental Management in mid-2019 after serving in management roles at both the National Nuclear Security Administration and DNFSB. A spokesperson at DOE headquarters said Tuesday White has effectively been gone from DOE since June.

DNFSB is a small federal watchdog agency that provides DOE with outside safety analysis and advice on its nuclear facilities. Set up as a five-member panel, DNFSB currently has only three members and the tenure of one of those, Chair Joyce Connery, expired in October. Connery has stayed on to provide a quorum until another member is confirmed by the Senate.