The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee appears likely to report out MIT physicist Ernest Moniz’s nomination to serve as the next Secretary of Energy during a business meeting scheduled to be held today at 9:45 a.m. Moniz received bipartisan support from committee members, including Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) during a hearing held on his nomination earlier this month. “I’ve heard one senator after another say, Dr. Moniz, I appreciate your reaching out and discussing X subject or Y subject. And I think it’s an … indication that senators of both parties and all political philosophies recognize that this gridlock and this partisan bickering on the energy issue, which has gone on now for months and months, has got to give way to some problem-solving. You have the expertise and it is clear that you’ve built a lot of goodwill with senators on both sides of the aisle, and I plan to support your nomination,” Wyden said during the April 9 hearing. The business meeting is set to be followed by a committee hearing at 10 a.m. to examine DOE’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget request, with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman scheduled to testify.