Three of President Donald Trump’s nominees to key jobs at the Department of Energy recently took a step closer to confirmation.
The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on May 21 backed the nominations of Jonathan Brightbill to become general counsel, Tina Pierce to be chief financial officer along with Conner Prochaska to head DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). That is according to a committee press release.
None of the three have been scheduled for a full Senate floor vote as of Wednesday afternoon.
Prochaska, nominated Feb. 3, held an executive post with the ARPA-Energy program during the first Trump administration. While serving in the Navy, Prochaska served as a Counter-Weapons of Mass Destruction Intelligence Officer, according to his committee testimony.
Pierce, who was nominated Feb. 11, started in financial management while serving in the Marine Corps, and would later work for the Department of the Air Force’s Defense Health Agency and have her own information technology firm.
Brightbill was nominated March 10 and has worked at a major Washington, D.C., law firm as well as at the Department of Justice.
Separately, according to a source, James Danly, confirmed last month to become deputy secretary of energy, could be sworn in early next week to the No. 2 post under Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
