Senate committee advances Trump's NRC, EPA nominees

Dive Brief:

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week approved nominees for three open positions at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The committee approved Nuclear Regulatory Commission members Annie Caputo and David Wright.
The committee also approved, in a 12-9 vote along party lines, Susan Bodine to be EPA assistant administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. All three nominees now head for a Senate confirmation vote later this month.

Dive Insight:

If the NRC nominees are confirmed, the agency would have a full complement of five commissioners. The Commission faced a quorum shortfall in earlier this year, with current Commissioner Kristine Svinicki's term ending in June. But the Senate voted 88-9 to confirm Svinicki just before her term wrapped up last month.

Caputo is a senior adviser to Sen. John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. She formerly worked at Exelon as its congressional affairs manager, the largest operator of nuclear plants in the nation. She cleared the committee with a bipartisan 15-6 vote.

Wright is a former member of the South Carolina Public Service Commission, and served as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in 2011. He was approved by a 12-9 vote.

If approved by the Senate, Bodine would head up EPA’s enforcement efforts. She currently serves under Barrasso as chief counsel on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Bodine has come under fire from Democrats for potential conflicts of interest because she has defended companies against the EPA when she worked as an attorney in the private sector, according to some press reports.