The Senate on Thursday confirmed James Richard “Rick” Perry as U.S. secretary of energy, installing the former Texas governor to the government’s top nuclear weapons, waste, and energy post after an uncontroversial 62-37 vote.
Every Senate Republican and 10 Democrats voted for Perry. All 37 “no” votes were from Democratic senators, plus Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) did not vote.
After being sworn in Thursday evening by Vice President Mike Pence, Perry assumes leadership of a federal agency with a roughly $30 billion annual budget, about half of which is spent on active nuclear weapons programs and cleanup of DOE’s Cold War-era nuclear complex.
Among the Democrats who reached across the aisle to confirm Perry were two from states with big stakes in federal nuclear-waste cleanup: Sen. Mark Udall (D-N.M.), whose state hosts the newly reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), whose home state has been gearing up to once again fight the opening of the shuttered Yucca Mountain civil-military nuclear waste repository.
Among the bulk of Senate Democrats who voted “no” was Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a reliable cleanup fund-finder for DOE’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash.
Cantwell opposed Perry’s confirmation for reasons that had nothing to do with DOE’s nuclear waste or weapons programs. Specifically, she objected to reports that the Trump administration planned to cut DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Fossil Energy offices. In a prepared statement, Cantwell said she will “take the governor at his word that he will come to Hanford and that he will look for funding to make sure that cleanup happens.”
Hanford, a former plutonium production site, is the largest, most expensive, and most contaminated remediation project in the DOE complex.
Meanwhile, a Republican lawmaker from Washington state offered congratulations to Perry from the other side of Capitol Hill.
“I congratulate Governor Perry on his confirmation as Secretary of Energy,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose congressional district includes Hanford, said in a press release that hit the wires soon after Perry was confirmed. “Meeting the legal and moral obligation to continue Hanford cleanup is critical for Central Washington and our country.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, said he was “pleased the Senate has voted to confirm [Perry] as Energy Secretary. He appreciates the role the Department of Energy plays in the management and modernization of our nuclear weapons—an important part of the work done at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge … I have invited him to come to Tennessee early this year to see firsthand the important work done in Oak Ridge.”
At least one congrats sounded from within DOE Thursday.
“#Senate confirms Rick Perry as 14th @Energy Secretary. Congrats and Welcome Aboard!” Frank Klotz, head of the department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administrator and a holdover from the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, it remained unclear when the Trump administration would start filling other DOE leadership positions that require Senate confirmation. Among these: Perry’s deputy; the assistant secretary for environmental management; and the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Dan Brouillette, a lobbyist for the United Services Automobile Association in San Antonio who has also worked at the Energy Department and on Capitol Hill, was said recently to be in the mix for deputy energy secretary.
The rumor mill has also continued to churn up the name of New York attorney and former DOE lawyer Gary Lavine as a possible head of DOE’s Environmental Management Office. John “Rick” Dearholt, a project manager who has worked as a cleanup contractor on the weapons complex, is also in the mix, according to one source.
At the National Nuclear Security Administration, Klotz was slated to remain as administrator for most of Trump’s first 100 days in office. Candidates said to be getting looks for the job include Paul Longsworth, a Fluor executive and former NNSA deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, and Jay Cohen, a retired Navy admiral who served in the Department of Homeland Security.
Among those said to be under consideration for less senior NNSA positions are: Longsworth; Rob Hood, who is now CH2M’s vice president for government affairs and has worked at both the NNSA and the Pentagon; and Willie Clark, another ex-NNSA staffer currently with Kansas City, Mo.-based Burns & McDonnell.
