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Floor Speech

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am here to speak to the nomination of David Wright to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and to express my opposition. Not only will I be casting my vote against the nomination of Mr. Wright, but I truly urge all of my colleagues, Republican and Democrat alike, to do the same, at least until things settle down at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

At his hearing, I had intended to vote for Mr. Wright and to support a speedy confirmation through the Senate. But things started going haywire at the NRC. Mr. Wright has the qualifications to serve on that Agency and assured us that he wanted to bring expertise, competence, and independence to the Agency--or I should say, protect the expertise, competence, and independence of that Agency.

The background here is that Congress created the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be an independent Agency to regulate nuclear facilities and materials. And when Congress did that, we deliberately separated it from the Department of Energy, and we have protected, for years, that as an important firewall.

Well, where are we now? The DOGE boys and the Department of Energy are infiltrating the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, compromising its integrity, its competence, and its mission. If you support expanding America's nuclear energy, this situation should alarm you. Even now, right now as I speak here, conditions aren't getting better at the NRC. After we pointed this out, they are still deteriorating.

While Mr. Wright committed to Congress that he would promote NRC's full authority and retain qualified staff and fulfill the Agency's commitment to the safe use of nuclear energy, that is not what we are seeing. What we are seeing is a DOGE-DOE detailee who has entered the top ranks over at the Agency without any Nuclear Regulatory Commission supervision. He is just planted over there, reporting to who knows who but, presumably, the Energy Secretary who is supposed to be on the other side of that firewall.

This DOGE-DOE detailee has been up to some bad business over there. He has been pushing out the Agency's top experts. Expertise in nuclear science and nuclear safety is a pretty precious commodity. People who worked there for years--for decades--are being shoved out. He has been pursuing reductions in force when, at this moment, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs more staff and help than ever.

And he has been pulling tricks like sidelining the general counsel over there to put her out of the equation--she, who must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission--and slip in a DOGE- and Department of Energy-driven, so-called chief counsel who the NRC hasn't approved and doesn't have to approve.

So the way we set it up was the Commission would pick its counsel, would have to approve it. And that person is being sidelined--the woman is being sidelined--so this other character can come in a slightly different role that doesn't require the approval of the Commission and just elbow her out. This guy is a fossil fuel lawyer. He doesn't know anything about nuclear energy except that it competes with fossil fuel. There is no good reason for that shift and a lot of bad reasons.

So my suspicions are up. All of this interference is threatening the NRC's independence and credibility at a time when the NRC's independence and credibility matters so much as we try to meet our unprecedented new demand for nuclear power.

I say this as a longtime champion of nuclear reform. I have been the top Democrat--the lead Democrat--on all of the nuclear reform bills that we have passed. It started with the Innovation Act with Senator Crapo. We went on to the Innovation and Modernization Act with Senator Barrasso and, most recently, the ADVANCE Act with Senator Capito.

I have put a fair amount of my credibility on the line because I believe that there is a new renaissance possible with nuclear power because of the small modular reactors and the safety components that can be done when you are building the same thing repeatedly and can test and test for safety; and the next-gen nuclear power that can be far safer than the older stuff and, if done right, could even burn through the nuclear waste stockpile, for which we have no other use, to provide a value power, clean power out of what is now a liability-- nuclear waste.

We really do have a huge opportunity in this industry. The industry is responding. People are hiring. People are going back to school. This is really happening, and I want to it happen. I want it to succeed.

So it is really dumb for the Trump administration to be recklessly interfering with the NRC right now. It ought to be as offensive to Senator Capito, Senator Crapo, Senator Barrasso as it is to me. Supporting America's nuclear industry has been a bipartisan project, and it is working. The NRC has moved. It has changed. These new projects are moving forward, the small modulars and the next gen. Things are happening over there.

It is not like they have fouled it up and now deserve to be taken over by DOGE characters--who don't know anything about nuclear power-- and by the Department of Energy. We are busting a thing that is working by doing this, and it doesn't seem to be a sensible plan other than the Department of Energy would like something else to run, even though they are supposed to be a firewall, and the DOGE people want stuff to wreck. But the DOE wanting something to run and DOGE wanting something to wreck is not a justification.

So to send a signal, I will be voting against Mr. Wright. And if--if, if, if--we could get a few votes to actually stop this nomination--not for long; just long enough to send a signal to the Department of Energy: Hands off the NRC; you are not supposed to cross that firewall, and the NRC itself: Hey, wake up; stand up and get those DOGE folks out of your shop, and to the nuclear industry, a burgeoning industry right now: Hey, defend the regulator upon whose credibility you depend, then I think we could make some real progress.

So this is not just an angry shout against an incompetent nominee. I have done that. This is trying to protect an important Agency because it is essential to accomplishing a key bipartisan goal to renew America's nuclear industry safely and productively.

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