{"id":1703,"date":"2025-07-28T23:53:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2025-07-29T00:29:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T00:29:23","slug":"senate-confirms-trump-pick-to-lead-independent-nuclear-regulatory-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/28\/senate-confirms-trump-pick-to-lead-independent-nuclear-regulatory-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate confirms Trump pick to lead independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Senate confirmed its first nominee of the week ahead of what is expected to be a jam-packed schedule to ram through as many of President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> picks as possible.<\/p>\n

David A. Wright, Trump\u2019s pick to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a five-year term, was confirmed in the upper chamber on a 50 <\/strong>to 39 vote on Monday. It\u2019s not Wright\u2019s first time as chair of the commission, having first served in the role beginning in 2020.<\/p>\n

KEY TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY SENATE DEMS PUTS PRESSURE ON GOP LEADERS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Trump had previously tapped Wright during his first term, and again selected him to lead the NRC earlier this year. His new term is set to end in 2030.<\/p>\n

The NRC is an independent regulatory agency tasked with regulating commercial nuclear power plants, reactor licensing and renewal and other elements related to protecting public health and safety when it comes to nuclear energy. Wright’s confirmation comes on the heels of Trump’s announcement that the U.S. and European Union were entering a trade deal that would see the bloc purchase $750 billion of U.S. energy over the next three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the commission is independent from other arms of the government, Senate Democrats<\/a> have balked at recent attempts to make the regulatory body, in their view, more partisan.<\/p>\n

‘ALL THE OPTIONS’: GOP EYES CUTTING AUGUST RECESS TO MOVE DOZENS OF TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY DEMS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order that demanded the agency consider making its safety standards less stringent, shortening the timelines for environmental reviews and a quadrupling of the nation\u2019s nuclear power capacity by 2050: all part of the president’s quest to ensure America’s energy dominance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., argued that over the last seven years that Wright has been a part of the commission, first as a commissioner beginning in 2018 and then as chair, he would fulfill the president’s wishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Achieving this will require experienced and highly qualified Commissioners who are empowered to lead the Agency through a period of high expectations,” she said in a statement. “Well, David Wright meets that mark.”<\/p>\n

Then Trump fired a Democratic member of the commission last month, and a staffer from the president\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE<\/a>) was reportedly detailed from the Department of Energy to the regulatory agency. \u00a0<\/p>\n

That prompted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse<\/a>, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to warn of a “hostile takeover” of the commission by the Energy Department.<\/p>\n

The move hurt what began as bipartisan support for Wright\u2019s nomination \u2014 Whitehouse initially backed him but changed his position.<\/p>\n

GOP LAWMAKERS CLASH OVER STRATEGY TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CRISIS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“I hoped to see Chairman Wright rise to the occasion, but circumstances right now at the NRC continue to deteriorate,” he said in a statement. “I cannot presently support his renomination.”<\/p>\n

Still, Wright\u2019s confirmation is a win for both Senate Republicans and the White House<\/a> after Trump called on the Senate GOP to ram his nominees through blockades set up by Senate Democrats.<\/p>\n

There are now over 140 pending “civilian” nominations for positions across the gauntlet of federal agencies, ambassadorships and judgeships. The Senate has moved at a blistering clip over the last six months to confirm nominees\u2014they\u2019ve clocked nearly 100 so far \u2014 the president has called on Senate Republicans to consider canceling the forthcoming August break to get more done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., warned that if his colleagues across the aisle continued to slow walk the process in the upper chamber for the slew of remaining “uncontroversial” nominees, or be prepared to stick around Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Or they can rein in their reflexive anti-Trump sentiment and allow some of his rank-and-file nominees to proceed by unanimous consent or voice vote \u2014 just as Republicans did when the roles were reversed,” he said. “And I\u2019d remind my colleagues about the dangerous and ugly precedent that they\u2019re setting here. But the choice is theirs. But whether it\u2019s the slow way or the fast way, we\u2019re getting President Trump\u2019s nominees confirmed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate confirmed its first nominee of the week ahead of what is expected to be a jam-packed schedule to ram through as many of President Donald Trump\u2019s picks as possible. David A. Wright, Trump\u2019s pick to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a five-year term, was confirmed in the upper chamber on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1704,"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions\/1704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vecimasupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}