Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski will use the delay in the August congressional recess to move as many of President Trump’s energy nominees as possible through to confirmation.
The Alaska Republican made the comments Thursday while holding a hearing to consider six nominees to serve the Energy and Interior departments, noting that confirming Trump’s nominees is taking longer than expected.
“I think this process has been a little slower than we anticipated,” Murkowski said. She said 38 nominees still need to go through the energy committee, with less than a handful of energy nominees having being confirmed by the Senate.
With the August session extended by two weeks, the chairwoman said her priority will be to “move these nominees as quickly” as possible to confirm them “before we leave in August.”
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, who sets the schedule for confirmations, said he has no guidance on how and when those nominations would be taken up.
The six nominees taken up Thursday at their first confirmation hearing were Paul Dabbar of New York to be under secretary for science in the Department of Energy; David Jonas of Pennsylvania to be general counsel for the Department of Energy; Mark Wesley Menezes of Virginia to be under secretary of the Department of Energy; Brenda Burman of Arizona to be commissioner of reclamation of the Department of the Interior; Susan Combs of Texas to be an assistant secretary of the Interior for Policy, Management and Budget; and Douglas W. Domenech of Virginia to an assistant secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee, said she will be raising concerns about the future of the departments they will serve.
The Washington Democrat said part of the committee’s task is “a little more confusing” based on what is happening at the Interior Department. One of her top concerns includes reports about Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reassigning staff who have worked on climate change programs to other positions with the agency.
