Senators confirmed new officials at the Federal Highway Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Dept. of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy as they approved 48 nominees en bloc Sept. 18.
The 51-47 party-line vote came after Senate Republicans, frustrated at the pace of confirmations, created a new rule allowing them to confirm any number of nominees together, rather than each separately.
“We’ve cast more than 500 [votes] up until now,” majority leader Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “We would have to cast another 600 in the three-and-a-half months before the end of the year just to get through the current pipeline. That doesn’t even consider the hundreds of additional nominees who will be added to that pipeline in the coming weeks and months.”
The confirmed nominees include Sean McMaster as administrator of the FHWA. McMaster served as deputy chief of staff and deputy assistant secretary for congressional affairs at the U.S. Dept. of Transportation during the first Trump administration. His private sector work has included stints at HNTB and Boeing. He has already been working as an advisor at DOT as officials there have begun work on the next surface transportation reauthorization.
“I look forward to partnering with state and local leaders to accelerate project delivery and get shovels in the ground,” he said in a statement following the confirmation.
McMaster’s nomination drew support from groups including the Associated General Contractors of America, Associated Builders and Contractors and National Asphalt Paving Association. Jim Tymon, executive director at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, highlighted McMaster’s experience as key for the surface reauthorization process.
“Sean’s previous roles have equipped him with extensive experience as well as a solid understanding of FHWA’s crucial partnership with state departments of transportation,” Tymon said in a statement.
At DOT, the Senator also confirmed Paul Roberti to lead the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Roberti is an attorney who was chief counsel at PHMSA during the first Trump administration, as well as a former Rhode Island public utilities commissioner. And Jonathan Morrision, an attorney at Apple who was chief counsel at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during the first Trump administration, was confirmed to lead that agency.
“Sean, Jonathan and Paul are strong leaders who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the department,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
Conner Prochaska will serve as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Prochaska was previously director of DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions and chief of staff at ARPA-E during Trump’s first term.
The Senate also confirmed the appointment of Robert Gleason to the Amtrak board of directors. He is a former head of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party and past member of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
