In an eleventh-hour move, Senate Republicans struck an agreement with the White House which cleared the way for Senate approval of about 175 pending nominations, including that of FERC Commissioner Suedeen G. Kelly for a second term, and which will result in the expected recess appointment of two nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in January.

The compromise, which came in the waning hours of the lame-duck session, freed a large number of nominations that were being held hostage by incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Reid was holding up all nominations until he won confirmation of Gregory B. Jaczko to the NRC. Jaczko, a Reid aide, opposes the government’s plan to deliver tons of spent nuclear water to a repository in Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Capitol Hill sources had previously predicted that Kelly’s nomination was dead in this Congress, and that she would have to be re-nominated by President Bush again in 2005 as a FERC Commissioner, and go through the confirmation process again in the Senate, in order to regain her seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see NGI, Nov. 22).

“It was not looking very encouraging” for Kelly’s confirmation, said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. But after “a lot of hard discussions and arrangements,” a deal was reached that paved the way for the Senate to approve the nominations by unanimous consent, he noted.

“I’m relieved that the suspense is over and truly excited to have the opportunity to continue serving the nation’s energy customers in this important role,” Kelly said last Monday.

Kelly joined the Commission in November 2003, and served out the remainder of a term of a prior Commissioner that expired on June 30 of this year. Since then, she has remained on the Commission under a grace period that was to expire when Congress adjourned for the year. The White House re-nominated Kelly, a former New Mexico regulator, to a second term in April.

Kelly, a Democrat, was confirmed for a full five-year term that will expire on June 30, 2009. Without her, FERC would have been made up of all Republicans — FERC Chairman Pat Wood, and Commissioners Nora M. Brownell and Joseph Kelliher.

©Copyright 2004 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.