The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 11-9 on each nomination to report to the full Senate the nominations of Lanny Erdos to lead the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement at the Department of the Interior, Audrey Robertson to be assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy, and Timothy Walsh to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management at DOE. The committee also noted that David Eisner asked for his nomination for assistant secretary of energy to be withdrawn and was not voted on.

Committee chairman Sen. Mike Lee said the panel had received timely answers from all three nominees to questions submitted for the record following a July 9 hearing and described the nominees as experienced. “They’re highly qualified, and they’re exactly the kind of leaders the American people expected him to assemble to achieve energy dominance,” Lee said. He urged the full Senate to move the nominees to confirmation, and said the committee has considered 21 nominees to date and advanced the three under consideration at this meeting.

Ranking Member Sen. Martin Heinrich said he would vote no on all three nominees, citing actions by the administration after prior nominees’ confirmations. “They have withheld funds that we have appropriated. They have canceled programs that we have established. They have closed offices that we have created, and they have pursued policies that we have never approved. Until this administration respects the will of Congress, I am unable to support these nominees, and I will vote no on all 3 as a result,” Heinrich said.

Roll-call votes were held for each nominee. On each vote the tally was 11 ayes and 9 nays, and the committee agreed to report the nominations favorably to the Senate floor. The committee chair said senators who wished to speak briefly about any nominee would be recognized after the votes; no formal defections of outcomes were recorded in committee.

The committee’s action moves the three nominees to the Senate floor for consideration. If confirmed by the full Senate, each nominee would assume leadership responsibilities at the Interior Department or the Department of Energy in the offices specified by the committee vote.

Additional procedural notes recorded in the meeting: the three nominees under consideration submitted answers to questions for the record from the committee’s July 9 hearing; one previously announced nominee, David Eisner, requested withdrawal of his nomination and was not voted on; and the committee chair emphasized that votes were being taken once a voting quorum was achieved.