SENATE RETURNS DOZENS OF NOMINATIONS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

The Senate, as expected, formally returned dozens of nominees to President Obama Jan. 3, including a handful of key Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration selections that were not cleared by the Senate before it adjourned last month. The nominees were caught up in a dispute between Democrats and Republicans over new filibuster rules in the Senate, and just a handful of Obama Administration nominees were confirmed in December. That did not include 10 DOE nominees, including Frank Klotz, the Administration’s pick to be the next National Nuclear Security Administration chief, and Elizabeth Robinson, the nominee to be the Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance.

Both Klotz and Robinson were nominated during the summer and cleared by Senate committees in September, but were not confirmed by the Senate. Other pending nominations that were returned to President Obama by the Senate included: Madelyn Creedon (Principal Deputy NNSA Administrator), Franklin Orr (Under Secretary of Energy for Science), Steven Croley (DOE General Counsel), Joseph Hezir (DOE Chief Financial Officer), Chris Smith (Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy), Jonathan Elkind (Assistant Secretary for International Affairs), Ellen Williams (Director of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy), and Marc Kastner (Director of DOE’s Office of Science).