The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was supposed to vote Wednesday on whether to give Jeffrey Baran another five years on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the vote never happened.
“Why did we not vote Baran?” someone in the committee room said near a hot microphone after the body wrapped up its other business of the day, a 16-3 bipartisan vote on Ranking Member Sen. Shelly Capito’s (R-W.Va.) ADVANCE Act of 2023.
There was no specific answer from the dais.
“We still have some work ahead of us on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission nominee,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the committee chair, said after the vote on Capito’s bill. “I hope we can maybe take care of that off the floor today, we’ll see if that can be worked out, that would be good.”
Carper announced his intention to support Baran’s renomination to the NRC, the main civilian nuclear safety regulatory, but Capito came out against the renomination.
“Since Commissioner Baran joined the commission in 2014, he has pursued policies supporting his regulatory philosophy,” Capito said. “That philosophy has frustrated, I believe, the mission of the NRC. He has called for unjustifiably increasing regulatory burdens and reducing regulatory predictability.
Democrats have a 10-9 majority on the Environment and Public Works Committee, meaning that if Republicans unite against a White House nominee such as Baran, only a united Democratic bloc can send that nominee to the Senate floor for final approval.
In a May 9 confirmation hearing, several Republican committee members criticized Baran for regulating with a heavy hand. One, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), called Baran “an impediment” to nuclear progress.
Baran is the longest serving NRC commissioner. If he is not reconfirmed before his term runs out on June 30, the NRC will drop to four members from five. That leaves about a month for Carper to whip votes from his colleagues on the committee and get Baran to the Senate floor.
President Joe Biden (D) nominated Baran for another five-year NRC term in April. If reconfirmed, the longtime commissioner’s new term would expire on July 30, 2028.
Baran holds a juris doctor from Harvard Law School and masters and bachelors degrees in political science from Ohio University. He worked on Capitol Hill prior to joining the commission.
