Eight months into the current administration, and many Senate-confirmed positions still remain vacant. While new nominees are confirmed each week, the White House has expressed frustration with the slow pace, stating that almost 275 nominees are still yet to be confirmed, including many “non-controversial” individuals who have support from both parties.
Compared to the previous administration, President Biden's confirmation rate is almost exactly on par. However, President Trump had a much slower confirmation rate in his first 200 days compared to his predecessors, with only about 90 confirmations, which stood in stark contrast to the roughly 240 confirmed in the same time frame in both the Bush and Obama Administrations. The large infrastructure package that just passed the Senate earlier this week is a potential cause of this delay, but the slim majority control Democrats have in the Senate is also likely playing a role.
Of interest to APGA, earlier this week, Samuel Walsh was confirmed by the Senate to serve as the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the federal agency responsible for developing minimum appliance efficiency standards that can impact the direct use of natural gas in homes and businesses. Additionally, late last month, Jen Easterly was confirmed as the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the branch of DHS that oversees pipeline security. Also pertaining to pipeline cybersecurity, debate continues on whether DOE’s Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) office will have a Senate-confirmed political appointee at the helm or be led by a career staffer. Since its establishment in 2018, CESER has been led by an Assistant Secretary (a politically appointed role), but Secretary Granholm and the current administration have made clear they believe it should be converted into a career position to provide more stability and continuity. However, the House recently passed bipartisan legislation that would require the head of CESER to remain a Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary. Finally, despite Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Neil Chatterjee’s term ending at the end of June, no new appointee has yet been named. Commissioner Chatterjee continues to serve, and can do so at his will until a new commissioner is confirmed or the current Congressional session ends, whichever comes first.
APGA staff continues to monitor federal nominations for positions that may impact members. A copy of APGA’s press statement regarding DOE’s General Counsel is available
here, and the one regarding CISA’s Director is available
here. For reference, all confirmed nominees can be found
here.
For questions on this article, please contact Renée Lani of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-0836 or by email at
rlani@apga.org.