The Senate Armed Services Committee in a voice vote Thursday advanced the White House’s nomination of Patricia Lee to be a member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a panel designed for five people that’s currently down to two.
The nomination of Lee, a manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, was immediately reported to the floor following the Committee’s action, according to an Armed Services press release.
The committee approved Lee’s nomination during the same hearing in which the body advanced by voice a list of 185 military nominations in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force.
Hours later, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) issued a statement thanking Senate Armed Services “for its work to confirm Dr. Patricia Lee, whom it believes will add value to the Agency and looks forward to a full Senate confirmation and a restoration of quorum.”
DNFSB, the small agency created to provide independent safety advice to the Department of Energy, no longer has a quorum following retirement of longtime member Jessie Hill Roberson, Congress was officially told last week.
Federal standards allow Chair Joyce Connery, with an assist from Vice Chair Thomas Summers, to keep DNFSB acting as a DOE safety watchdog for up to a year before losing its authority. Connery moved to assume that power last week.
“This letter is to notify you that, pursuant to [the federal statute], the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board no longer has a quorum,” Connery wrote in a Thursday Oct. 19 notification to Congress, posted on the DNFSB website Friday. The five-member panel fell to two members following the Oct. 18 retirement of Roberson.
“Therefore, effective immediately, I will carry out the delegated functions and powers of the board” for up to a year, Connery said. “If a quorum has not been restored prior to October 18, 2024, the Board will remain without a quorum and the delegation will expire, leaving the board unable to exercise its authority.”
Connery has previously stressed the importance of returning the board to a full five members.
President Joe Biden formally nominated Lee, a manager at DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory in July, after announcing the intent to nominate her in February.
“People are anxious to have her complete that process,” Roberson told Exchange Monitor last week, saying stability among board members is important.
