Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
11/21/2014
President Barrack Obama late last week nominated current Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Jeffrey Baran to serve the remaining years left on departing NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane’s tenure. Macfarlane is set to leave the NRC at the end of this year, ahead of when her tenure would expire in June 2018. Baran initially was confirmed to serve out the remainder of former Commissioner William Magwood’s term, which expires next June. If Baran’s latest nomination is confirmed, this would add an additional three years to the tenure of the former aide to Rep. Henry Waxman (D- Calif.). Baran officially joined the Commission last month after the Senate approved his nomination in September.
Baran’s new nomination, though, has drawn the ire of Senate Republicans. Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member David Vitter (La.) criticized in a statement last week the additional years for an “inexperienced” Baran. “The President’s nominee to ensure the safety and success of our nuclear future visited a nuclear facility for the first time in his life this summer,” Vitter said. “It is vital to the security and reliability of our nation’s energy needs for the members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be independent, thoughtful, and highly qualified. Baran clearly lacks that experience, and we need to hold a full EPW committee hearing.”
However, EPW Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) declined this week to schedule a committee hearing, and instead has moved to hold a vote on Baran’s new nomination, the date of which has yet to be announced. This decision prompted committee Republicans, led by Vitter, to send Boxer a letter this week requesting the Chair schedule a hearing to look into Baran’s perceived inexperience and avoid setting “a clear change in committee precedent with long term ramifications.” The senators’ main concern, according to the letter, is the additional time added to Baran’s term. “While it is true that we recently held a hearing to consider Baran’s qualifications on September 11, 2014, the sole purpose of that hearing was to decide whether or not he was qualified to hold this position for the remainder of Former Commissioner William Magwood’s term, which will expire on July 20, 2015,” the senators wrote. “The difference in term lengths are drastic, and many questions remain concerning the qualifications of Baran who only recently visited a nuclear reactor power station for the first time.”
Sen. Boxer Defends Baran’s New Nomination
Boxer argued that the senators had their chance for questioning back in September when the Committee conducted an initial hearing into Baran’s nomination. In a response letter, she wrote that they “have had ample time and recent opportunity to thoroughly question Mr. Baran.” She also added that Commissioner Kristine Svinicki had a similar experience level when she was appointed to the Commission. “Publicly available travel records indicate that before Republican Commissioner Kristine Svinicki was nominated, she had visited no U.S. nuclear power plants—yet no member of EPW raised any concern about the sufficiency of her qualifications,” Boxer wrote.
