The Trump administration has officially nominated former corporate environmental lawyer Teri Donaldson to be the Department of Energy’s inspector general, but a logjam in the Senate means it could be a while before she gets a nomination hearing.
Donaldson, currently the general counsel for Sen. John Barraso (R-Wyo.), was officially nominated Monday evening, when the White House sent her paperwork over to the Senate. The Senate, however, is dealing with a slew of bills, including the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.
The upper chamber plans to stay in session for part of August, forgoing most of its traditional summer recess, but Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that time will be devoted to passing appropriations bills.
Donaldson moved to Washington less than a year ago to start working for Barrasso’s office, where she has served since September. Her most recent prior stint in public service was from 1999 to 2004, when she was general counsel for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R).
As inspector general, Donaldson would be DOE’s chief internal watchdog: a critical eye within the agency empowered to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse, including within the department’s nuclear-weapon and nuclear-waste-cleanup programs that command roughly $20 billion a year in federal funds. The DOE inspector general serves for life.
The Energy Department has been without a full-time inspector general for more than two years since Gregory Friedman retired in October 2015 after 17 years on the job.
Donaldson will next have a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Barrasso chairs. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee must also approve her nomination before the full Senate can vote to confirm her appointment to DOE. The Senate had not scheduled these hearings at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
The Senate stonewalled the last person nominated to be DOE inspector general: 27-year agency veteran Susan Beard, who was tapped for the post in mid-2016 by then-President Barack Obama. Beard’s nomination was returned without action in January 2017, after which April Stephenson, DOE’s principal deputy inspector general, led the office on an acting basis until November. Federal law restricts the amount of time interim managers may occupy positions that require Senate confirmation to fill.
