The Senate Tuesday voted 52-to-44 to confirm James Danly, a former member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to be deputy secretary of energy.
The vote was along party lines with four senators, two Democrats and two Republicans, not voting.
Danly, an attorney and U.S. Army veteran from Tennessee, was nominated to the position by President Donald Trump on Jan. 22. Last month, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee supported his nomination 13-to-7.
Danly will hold the No. 2 position at DOE, second only to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
President Trump’s three nuclear-related nominees are still awaiting Senate action.
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nominee Brandon Williams has undergone a hearing from the Senate Armed Services Committee and DOE Office of Nuclear Energy nominee Ted Garrish has also had a hearing. Garrish testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Trump’s nominee to head the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Tim Walsh, is still awaiting a hearing.
On Wednesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee favorably endorsed the nomination of Catherine Jereza to be the department’s assistant secretary for electricity. The ranking Democrat on the panel, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, voted against her confirmation. Heinrich opposed certain actions she took while a senior DOE adviser in the office of infrastructure.
The same committee also heard testimony from a trio of DOE nominees: Jonathan Brightbill to be general counsel; Tina Pierce to be chief financial officer and Conner Prochaska to be director of the department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency.
