The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced Friday afternoon that it had scheduled its vote on confirming Jeff Baran for another term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The panel will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday for a business meeting to vote on Baran’s nomination, along with the nominations of four people to serve in assistant administrator positions at the Environmental Protection Agency and the nominee to lead the Transportation Department’s Federal Highway Administration.
Baran, a lawyer and longtime Democratic congressional staffer, joined the NRC in 2014 for a term that ends on June 30, 2018. The White House in September nominated him for a new term that would keep him on the commission to June 30, 2023.
While there are still more than eight months left in Baran’s current term, and scant evidence of GOP support for his nomination, it is clear that Democrats want him reappointed to the commission alongside new Republican nominees Annie Caputo and David Wright.
Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wy.) “is very supportive of the nominations of Annie Caputo and David Wright. Both passed the committee and await full Senate consideration,” panel spokesman Mike Danylak said by email Friday. “As Chairman Barrasso said during the nomination hearing: Senate Democrats have refused to advance the nominations of Annie Caputo and David Wright to the NRC until Commissioner Baran is confirmed to a new five-year term.”
During an Oct. 4 confirmation hearing, Barrasso and other Republican lawmakers were critical both of Baran’s perceived lack of support for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada and the national security benefits of nuclear power.