Wrap up: SecNav confirmation; Nuclear financing in Indiana; DOGE after DOE sick office; more

The Senate easily confirmed financier and Donald Trump campaign donor John Phelan 62-30 to be the next Secretary of the Navy on Monday evening.

All Republicans present voted for Phalen. The 11 Democrats in favor included the Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (R.I.) and other committee members Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.). In addition, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), also on Armed Services, supported the nomination. 

During his confirmation hearing, Phelan said he would focus on improving shipbuilding and incentivizing the industrial base, while he also noted he would look into specific contracts of programs with production issues to see where they can be changed.

The Indiana state Senate and House of Representatives have passed Senate Bill 424 on nuclear financing, which now awaits the signature of Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (R).

The bill would allow public utilities to petition before or during the construction of a small modular reactor to recover pre-construction costs from customers prior to receiving certificates of public convenience and necessity from the Indiana Utility Regulation Commission.

The bill passed in the House in a 59 – 30 vote on March 20 and passed in the Senate in a 32 – 15 vote on March 25.

The lease for a Department of Labor office set up in Richland, Wash., to handle claims from workers made ill from nuclear weapons-related work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, could be on the chopping block, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said last week.

In addition to the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, has also targeted the lease for the Government Accountability Office in Seattle, often monitors DOE and Department of Defense programs, Murray said in a fact sheet released Friday March 21.

The Hanford Resource Center provides assistance to claimants and potential claimants of benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, Murray said in the release. Potential DOGE action on the leases was reported Friday by the Tri-City Herald newspaper. 

The National Nuclear Security Administration, in an online procurement notice, indicated it will stick with Germantown, Md.-based Project Enhancement Corporation to continue its enterprise-wide strategic planning.

The Office of Policy and Strategic Planning plans to award a three-month, time-and-materials task order to federal contractor Project Enhancement Corporation with two different three-month option periods and would take place in Germantown, Md., according to the March 20 notice. An estimation of the procurement cost was not listed.

The notice also said that the documents and tools would be related to governance and management reform “across the Nuclear Security Enterprise.” The period of performance will run from March 14 to Jun. 13, 2025.

Obituary

Former Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), the first black Republican Congresswoman, died at age 49 on Sunday following a battle with brain cancer. 

Love, who represented the 4th Congressional district of Utah from 2015-2019, passed away on Sunday in Saratoga Springs, Utah, according to her X account where her family announced it. 

During her four-year stint in the House of Representatives, she was a member of the Committee of Financial Services from 2017-18. She also served on the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives under the guidance of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Love was one of five Republicans to vote against the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017-18.