The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s four nominees for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board of Directors in a 53 – 43 vote on Dec. 18.
The confirmation of Arthur Graham, Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood and Randall Jones were among a large bloc of other Trump nominees who were awaiting confirmations. The four confirmed TVA members will join the current three board members, which allows the board to quorum to hold votes again.
The board, composed of nine members, must have at least five members to hold votes.
The federally-owned TVA is the largest public power utility in the United States. It operates seven nuclear reactors across three nuclear power plants. Nuclear power makes up about 42% of the electricity generated by the TVA.
The nominations of the now four TVA members occurred after Trump removed all of President Joe Biden appointees to the board. Michelle Moore was the first Biden-appointed TVA to be removed by Trump in March. Joe Ritch, the then TVA chair, and Beth Geer were soon fired the following months.
Graham, Graves, Hagood and Jones were all nominated in July and testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Oct. 22. The four soon advanced through the Senate committee in a 10 – 9 vote in late October.
Among the TVA’s board nominations, Lee Beaman was the sole nominee left out of the confirmation vote. Beaman’s vote to advance out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was postponed during its Dec. 10 business meeting.
A vote has yet to be scheduled for Beaman in the Senate committee.
During Beaman’s Dec. 3 nomination hearing, he was grilled by various Democrats on his personal, business and political background. Beaman was questioned about his association with controversial evangelical pastor Steve Berger and his involvement with the campaign of Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.).
Ogles is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee covering issues concerning campaign finances during his run for Congress in 2022. During the hearing, Beaman said he was Ogles’s campaign treasurer for four months, but in his written responses to senators’ questions he denied working in the position, according to a News Channel 5 Nashville Dec. 16 article.