The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 13 – 6 Wednesday to favorably report out the nomination of Ho Nieh to become a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Alex Padilla (Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) voted along with all 10 Republicans on the committee for Nieh’s nomination.
After garnering some bipartisan support for his nomination, Nieh is slated to go to the full Senate for a confirmation vote at a later day.
The same committee also advanced the nominations of Arthur Graham, Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood and Randall Jones to be members of the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors in a 10-to-9 vote.
Whitehouse elected to vote in favor of Nieh despite his concerns “that the mischief and upheaval at the NRC is threatening nuclear safety and regulatory certainty,” he said in his opening statement.
“I expect Mr. Nieh to resist the dangerously misguided political interference that upends decades of bipartisan support for NRC as the safety regulator enabling the nuclear industry’s very existence,” Whitehouse said.
In Nieh’s Oct. 8 nomination hearing, he testified before the Senate committee and said, if confirmed, he would commit to the NRC’s mission of safety and independence as a commissioner.
Among the nominations approved during the committee’s business meeting, Nieh was the only nomination that received votes from Democratic senators.
Nieh was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 30 for an NRC commissioner term that is slated to expire on June 30, 2029.
Nieh’s nomination came in the same week where chair David Wright was reconfirmed by the Senate to serve as an NRC commissioner and Annie Caputo announced her resignation.
Prior to Nieh’s nomination, former commissioner Christopher Hanson was terminated from his position by Trump on June 13.
Preceding his nomination, Nieh formerly worked for the NRC for over 20 years and served as the director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. After retiring from the NRC in 2021, Nieh transitioned to the industry sector and worked recently as the vice president of regulatory affairs for Southern Nuclear.