Nominees for high-level nuclear energy and weapons jobs at the Department of Energy could get another trip through the Senate confirmation procoess for Christmas, according to a spokesperson for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Asked whether there was any chance that William Bookless and Rita Baranwal — nominees respectively for senior posts in DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Nuclear Energy — might be allowed a confirmation vote in the upcoming 116th Congress, the McConnell spokesperson said Tuesday that “[n]ominees who are on the Executive Calendar when the Senate adjourns sine die are returned to the White House.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Dec. 10 unanimously approved Bookless for the position of principal deputy administrator at the NNSA. Baranwal received slightly more resistance on Nov. 27 at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which nonetheless advanced her nomination as assistant energy secretary for nuclear energy.
Senate rules, in theory, allow nominees to be held over from one session of Congress to the next. However, that requires the body’s unanimous consent, and no such motion was scheduled for floor consideration at deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The 116th Congress is slated to gavel in on Jan. 3. The 115th Congress is expected to be in session at least into Friday, by which time lawmakers must agree on a budget for the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies that will otherwise close when their short-term funding expires at midnight. However, that does not include the Department of Energy, which has already received full-fiscal year funding through Sept. 30, 2019
The Republican Senate held some nominees over from the 114th session of Congress into the 115th session, which began on Jan. 3, 2017. If that does not happen again, Bookless, Baranwal, and nominees from other agencies might find themselves yo-yoing back to the White House for possible renomination in the New Year.
