William Cooper, the Trump administration’s nominee to become Energy Department general counsel, was passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a voice vote Thursday afternoon.
The vote came after the panel’s business meeting was postponed Thursday morning, a committee staffer said. The nominee will now await action by the full Senate, which reconvenes in Washington Monday, but was not scheduled to act on the top DOE-lawyer nomination at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
Cooper is a corporate lawyer and former staffer on Capitol Hill, where he served as staff director for the House Natural Resources mineral resources subcommittee and general counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. His most recent position was senior counsel and director in the Washington, D.C., branch of McConnell Valdés, a corporate law firm based in Puerto Rico.
The original Trump administration nominee for general counsel, David Jonas, a former attorney with DOE and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, withdrew in January. A veteran Energy Department official, Ted Garrish, the agency’s assistant secretary for international affairs, is serving as general counsel on an acting basis.
