Late Thursday night, the Senate confirmed by voice vote Anne White to be Assistant Secretary for the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM-1).
Since her confirmation hearing with the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on
January 18, White's nomination was held up by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) over the Department's practice of selling excess stores of uranium on the market. Barrasso insisted that this practice of uranium bartering hurt his home state's uranium mining industry.
On March 20, during a hearing with the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Secretary Rick Perry told Barrasso that the uranium bartering program was "poorly
designed," and that he planed to end the program "beyond this fiscal year by working together to fully fund our environmental management cleanup through the appropriations process." Perry's commitment effectively cleared the way for White's nomination to be approved.
White is expected to be sword in as EM-1 in the coming days.
