Members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will testify before a Senate oversight hearing Wednesday morning, amid an ongoing shakeup at the agency.
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing, will be held at 10 a.m. Eastern Time in Room 562 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building, will feature Commissioners Bradley Crowell, Matthew Marzano and Chair David Wright.
NRC has seen much staff turnover over the past several months under President Donald Trump’s administration. One commissioner was terminated by Trump and another resigned, while many veteran staffers have also departed. Many Democrats have grown concerned about maintaining independence of the agency that Trump wants to overhaul.
Trump fired Commissioner Christopher Hanson in June and Commissioner Annie Caputo stepped down from the agency in August. Caputo’s departure came a day after Wright was confirmed by the Senate for a new five-year term.
It was also a day before Trump nominated former NRC staffer Ho Nieh for a position at the nuclear regulatory agency.
Through executive actions, Trump also ordered the overhaul of the NRC and pushed for more nuclear authorization for the Department of Energy (DOE) to accelerate the licensing and deployment of nuclear energy.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Senate Works and Public Works Committee top Democrat, said during Wright’s renomination Senate hearing that he feared of a DOE “hostile takeover” of the NRC as a Department of Government Efficiency staffer, detailed from DOE, worked at the NRC office with no NRC supervisor.
Last month, Reps. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Diane DeGette (D-Colo.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright requesting for information on the roles between DOE and NRC as the Democrats said the roles of the two agencies have recently blurred.