Trump Plans to Nominate NEI Lobbyist to DOE Congressional Affairs Post

President Donald Trump plans to nominate nuclear industry lobbyist and former Capitol Hill staffer Melissa Burnison as assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, the White House announced Wednesday.

If nominated and then confirmed by the Senate, Burnison would lead the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs as the principal Department of Energy (DOE) liaison to Congress, and to other Executive-Branch agencies.

Burnison is now director of federal affairs for the Nuclear Energy Institute trade group in Washington. Before serving as an industry lobbyist, she was a senior adviser at the Energy Department and at the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee.

The last full-time assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs at DOE was Bradley Crowell, who left the Barack Obama administration’s Department of Energy in October 2016 after about three years of service to work for the state of Nevada.

The assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs reports directly to the office of the secretary of energy.

The Energy Department has filled out its top ranks recently, after months in which Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette were the only two officials to be confirmed by the Senate. Earlier this month, the upper chamber confirmed Berkshire Hathaway executive Mark Wesley Menezes as undersecretary for the Department of Energy and J.P. Morgan executive Paul Dabbar as undersecretary for science.