Thomas Gardiner
The timeline for advancing the three nominees for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remained murky Thursday, more than a week after the confirmation hearing for sitting Commissioner Jeff Baran.
The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee has not scheduled a vote on giving Baran a full five-year term to June 30, 2023. Similarly, new nominees David Wright and Annie Caputo are still waiting on floor votes to fill vacant positions and return the commission to having five members.
It’s a question of timing and political balance, as EPW Committee Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.) wants all three nominees to get full Senate votes on the same day, his office said. But that isn’t as simple as it sounds.
“The Senate can only vote on one nominee per 30 hours unless they get unanimous consent,” said Carper spokeswoman Meghan Pennington. “All senators must agree, and sometimes simple reasons for objection keep the vote from being unanimous. Senator Carper supports voting on all three nominees the same day to ensure parity on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”
Caputo, a nuclear engineer and senior adviser to EPW Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wy.), and Wright, an energy consultant and former member of the South Carolina Public Service Commission, are solid Republicans who got the thumbs-up from the Senate panel in July. If confirmed, Caputo’s term would end on June 30, 2021, and Wright would serve at least to June 30, 2020.
The committee and Senate in June approved a third term for NRC Chair Kristine Svinicki, also a Republican, to June 30, 2022. Her appointment was fast-tracked to ensure the commission did not fall below the three members necessary for a quorum.
The current field of nominees would leave two Democrats on the commission: Baran, a former congressional staffer whose current term ends on June 30, 2018, and Stephen Burns, whose term lasts one year longer.
“Senate Democrats have refused to advance the nomination of Annie Caputo and David Wright to the NRC until Commissioner Baran is confirmed to a new five-year term,” Barrasso said during last week’s hearing for Baran. He called approving Baran “a big ask,” and pressed the nominee on his positions on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada and the national security benefits of nuclear power. The lawmaker expressed reservations about giving Baran a term that would last years beyond those of Wright and Caputo.
A spokesman for Barrasso this week could not provide details about what it would take for the senator to support Baran’s nomination.
Pennington said Carper has not put any sort of hold on the Wright and Caputo nominations: “That’s simply not true. Senators can’t just put a hold on a nomination.”
