(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump announced two nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has been hamstrung by vacancies for two years. But a tight Senate schedule raises questions about whether they’ll be confirmed before the year ends.
Trump tapped Mark Christie, chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, to fill a Republican slot at the agency. He also named Allison Clements, who spent a decade as an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, to fill a vacant Democratic seat.
The next step for the nominees: confirmation hearings, followed by a vote on the Senate floor. That may be a tall order, as the Senate has just 55 working days left this year and an agenda packed with budget bills and pandemic-related legislation. The last person Trump nominated to the commission -- Republican James Danly in 2019 -- didn’t get a vote before the session ended, which forced the White House to resubmit the nomination the following year.
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