Senate Tees up Nominees for Votes; Regalbuto Not Among Them

The Senate could clear a handful of nominees early this week, including Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board nominee Daniel Santos, State Department arms control nominee Frank Rose, and Department of Energy fossil energy pick Chris Smith. Notably absent from the list of nominees was DOE Environmental Management pick Monica Regalbuto, who was nominated earlier this year to head up DOE’s cleanup work and has been serving as DOE’s Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) lifted a hold on Regalbuto earlier this month.

 

The rare Saturday Senate session, forced by Republicans over the omnibus funding bill, gave time for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to file cloture on two dozen nominees. Republicans have balked at clearing Democratic nominees this month, forcing a timely process to clear each nominee. But given time on Saturday, Reid was able to tee up the nominees for a vote early this week. Rose was nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance in July of 2013 and has waited more than 500 days to be confirmed by the Senate. With DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur planning to leave the five-member Board this month—leaving the Board with two members—Santos’ nomination is needed to give the Board a quorum.