Senators clash over nuclear regulator’s confirmation

Senate Republicans lambasted their Democratic colleagues Wednesday for their refusal to hold a hearing on whether to extend the term of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) member.

Though Jeffery Baran testified at a hearing in September when he was first nominated to the board, Sen. David Vitter (La.) and other Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee demanded a new hearing for President Obama’s re-nomination of Baran to a seat that lasts until 2018.

{mosads}The GOP senators used an unrelated hearing on NRC Wednesday to let their feelings known to committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and the other Democrats.

“I just want to express real regret that when Republicans on this committee unanimously  requested what is completely standard — a hearing on Mr. Baran’s nomination to a full term — we were denied that opportunity before the committee vote yesterday,” said Vitter, the top Republican on the committee.

“I don’t understand that. It’s completely unprecedented,” he continued. “It was a very basic, very straightforward request that we get this hearing, given that Mr. Baran is nominated now to a full term.”

Baran was a witness at Wednesday’s hearing on the NRC’s implementation of new policies following the nuclear meltdown in Japan in 2011, but no one asked him about his nomination.

The committee’s 10 Democrats voted Tuesday to confirm Baran’s new nomination, at a meeting no Republican attended. All eight GOP members submitted proxy “no” votes.

At issue is Republicans’ contention that Baran lacks experience in nuclear safety, and was only nominated because he is a faithful Democrat who has worked for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The GOP says Baran had not even been to a nuclear power plant until he was first nominated this summer for a seat that turns over in 2015.

Vitter and his colleagues wanted a chance to reexamine Baran’s qualifications either at a confirmation hearing or with questions at Wednesday’s hearing, a request that Boxer denied.

“The current majority has unilaterally passed commissioner Baran without one Republican vote, and no hearing for this longer term to fill the remainder of Ms. MacFarlane’s term,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)

“It appears the current majority is trying to chip away at the NRC brick by brick until all that is left is those who do as they are told,” he said. “This is not good for public safety.”

Boxer defended her decision and Baran’s qualifications.

She said that Kristine Svinicki, a Republican member of NRC, had similar experience to Baran’s when she was first nominated by President George W. Bush in 2008, but no senators raised questions about her experience at the time.

“In her work, she had nothing to do with civilian nuclear energy,” Boxer said of Svinicki

“This outrage over appointing commissioners who worked as congressional staffers is … really ridiculous.”