The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday approved Dan Brouillette to be deputy secretary of energy, sending the Texas insurance lobbyist’s nomination on to the full Senate for a vote that had not been scheduled at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
Glad to see our Deputy Secretary nominee, Dan Brouillette, voted through committee. Looking forward to having his expertise on board.
— Rick Perry (@SecretaryPerry) June 6, 2017
Brouillette, who last served DOE as a congressional liaison in the George W. Bush administration, sailed through his confirmation hearing with the Committee May 25. The Trump administration announced its intent to nominate Brouillette as Perry’s deputy April 3 and made the move official May 16, when it sent his nomination to the Senate.
If confirmed, Brouillette would be just the second Senate-approved leadership post the Trump administration, in power for 137 days as of Tuesday, has filled.
When it comes to filling these senior Energy posts, Trump is behind the pace set both his two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush — but not by much.
The Senate confirmed Obama’s first deputy energy secretary, Daniel B. Poneman, May 18, 2009, almost exactly a month after Obama sent his nomination to the Hill. Similarly, the Senate confirmed George W. Bush’s first deputy energy secretary, Francis Blake on May 25, 2001. Bush sent Blake’s nomination to the Senate April 30, 2001.
Sources familiar with the Trump administration’s thinking have said the White House plans to fill DOE leadership positions from the top down. The White House’s actions so far have borne out that insight, suggesting the administration could soon move to nominate an undersecretary for nuclear security to head the National Nuclear Safety Administration, and an assistant secretary of energy for environmental management to take charge of the agency’s Office of Environmental Management.
