Senate Republicans are gearing up to vote on another mass package of White House nominees awaiting confirmation, and the group includes Tim Walsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Walsh is one of many nominees identified in Senate Resolution 412 who could be voted upon in one large voice vote, according to the Oct. 3 Congressional Record.
A procedural vote passed the Senate 51-to-46 Friday, Oct. 3, moving the mass confirmation closer to occurring. No vote on the nominations had occurred as of 3 p.m. Eastern Time Tuesday.
Walsh was nominated by Trump in March and cleared the committee in July but has not yet undergone a full Senate confirmation vote. Two heads of other DOE branches, Brandon Williams of the National Nuclear Security Administration and Ted Garrish of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy were both confirmed as part of a similar group package vote by the Senate on Sept. 17.
Walsh’s nomination for assistant secretary for DOE’s Environmental Management office, or EM-1, was held up last month by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) over fears that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright was waffling on his commitment to the megabuck Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Since then the DOE issued its long-awaited critical-decision 4 supporting plant operations and Washington state issued its final state permit approvals, clearing the way for operations.
DOE and contractor Bechtel face an Oct. 15 deadline to start making glass at the plant from some of Hanford’s less-radioactive liquid sludge waste now held in underground tanks. Sources told Exchange Monitor the plant could go “hot” this week. DOE said at a meeting Monday night that it is gearing up for the transfer of waste from the tank farms to the Waste Treatment Plant later this week.