Most of President Donald Trump’s picks to be leaders in the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex were finally confirmed Thursday 51-47, some after waiting on the bench since May after being voted through at the committee level.
The nuclear weapons complex nominees confirmed en bloc this week are:
- Brandon Williams, the nominee to head DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
- Ted Garrish, the nominee to head DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
- Scott Pappano, the nominee to be principal deputy administrator at NNSA, or the position just below the head of the agency.
- Matt Napoli, the nominee to be the deputy administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation at NNSA.
Williams, a former one-term Republican congressman from New York’s 22nd district from 2023 to 2025, is a Navy veteran who gained national attention in 2022, when he first ran against fellow Navy veteran Francis Conole for the tossup House seat after Republican incumbent John Katko retired. In the House, Williams sponsored energy bills such as the “Milestones for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Act,” which would have established projects related to nuclear fuel.
Not on this list is Tim Walsh, Trump’s nominee to head the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Last week, ranking member of both the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Energy and Water subcommittee Patty Murray (D-Wash.) placed a hold on Walsh’s nomination due to what she deemed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright’s “stalling” starting up glass making at the Hanford Site.
On Wednesday evening, however, DOE announced issuance of Critical Decision-4, a key last step in approving operations at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. There was no word Thursday on whether Murray might now lift the hold.