With Congress in recess, pending DOE/NNSA noms make for a busy fall

With Congress out on recess this month, a busy September looms with authorization bills requests in both chambers to finalize by Oct. 1 and pending nominations in the Senate for the Department of Energy. 

Lawmakers will return facing a looming government funding deadline at the end of September, with a continuing resolution, which has become commonplace over time, seeming a more likely near-term outcome. The House has approved its version of the 2026 defense spending bill, but the Senate’s defense bill has only passed committee. Meanwhile, the House’s energy and water bill, which funds DOE, has passed committee, but the Senate’s counterpart bill has not been released yet. 

After both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees advanced their respective 2026 National Defense Authorization Acts in July, both chambers are likely to bring up the bills in the fall before lawmakers work to hammer out a conferenced version of the legislation for consideration later this year.

Additionally, key DOE nuclear appointee positions for the Donald Trump administration remain unconfirmed. Although James Danly has been sworn in as deputy secretary of energy, and Chairman David Wright has been sworn in for another term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, most others are stuck somewhere between committee votes and awaiting a vote by the full Senate.

For example, the nomination of Brandon Williams to lead DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was reported out of Senate Armed Services on May 1. But Williams awaits a vote by the full Senate.

Scott Pappano, Trump’s nominee for the second highest NNSA position of principal deputy administrator, was voted out of committee on May 13 and awaits a Senate vote.

Matthew Napoli, Trump’s nominee to head NNSA’s defense nuclear nonproliferation office, was placed on the Senate’s executive calendar on May 20. Still, Napoli awaits a Senate vote.

Likewise, the nomination of Ted Garrish to head DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy was reported out of Energy and Natural Resources on May 8 but no vote has been held yet.

In addition, President Donald Trump’s nomination of Colorado developer Tim Walsh to run DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the nuclear cleanup branch, last week cleared committee but has yet to receive a Senate hearing.

The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on May 21 backed the nominations of Jonathan Brightbill to become general counsel, Tina Pierce to be chief financial officer along with Conner Prochaska to head DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). That is according to a committee press release. None of the three have been scheduled for a full Senate floor vote.

Prochaska, nominated Feb. 3, held an executive post with the ARPA-Energy program during the first Trump administration. While serving in the Navy, Prochaska served as a Counter-Weapons of Mass Destruction Intelligence Officer, according to his committee testimony.  

Pierce, who was nominated Feb. 11, started in financial management while serving in the Marine Corps, and would later work for the Department of the Air Force’s Defense Health Agency and have her own information technology firm.  

Brightbill was nominated March 10 and has worked at a major Washington, D.C., law firm as well as at the Department of Justice.

In terms of related nuclear positions in the Department of Defense, the Senate confirmed a slew of top military officials last week prior to leaving town for recess. These confirmations include Adm. Daryl Caudle to take over the Chief of Naval Operations role after Adm. Lisa Franchetti was fired in February. Caudle has favored submarine outsourcing and shipyard recruitment to handle the capacity of 2.3 submarines to meet the needs of the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement between Australia, the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Also confirmed by voice vote on July 31 in the Senate was Lt. Gen. Stephen Davis to head the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC).

However, the upper chamber still has some pending Pentagon nominations to work through when it returns from break. Even though his replacement was confirmed, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, current head of AFGSC, has not yet been confirmed to be the next Air Force Vice Chief, Hung Cao has not been voted on to be undersecretary of the Navy, and Michael Cadenazzi has not been voted on yet to be assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy.