Background: ANS sends two Congressional Fellows to D.C. each year to contribute to the federal policymaking process by working in either a U.S. senator’s or representative’s personal office or with a congressional committee.
The Congressional Fellowship is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain hands-on experience” and “help shape public policy,” whether that be nuclear-specific policy or legislation that affects the entire energy sector, according to Harsh Desai, the chief commercialization officer at Zeno Power and chair of the ANS Congressional Fellowship Committee who was himself a Congressional Fellow in 2014.
Christensen’s update: Jacob Christensen is working in the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.), assisting on the senator’s portfolios in defense, energy, and foreign policy. He explained that he ended up in Gillibrand’s office after searching for a legislator who was willing to work across the aisle on important bipartisan issues like energy policy.
Aside from meeting with constituents, writing briefs, staffing Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearings, and helping during vote-a-ramas, Christensen has been working on the potential reauthorization of the West Valley Demonstration Project.
WVDP is a roughly 150-acre site in western New York owned by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The site contains the only commercial spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility that has ever operated in the United States. It ran from 1963 to 1972. Christensen marked the reauthorization of the project as his key goal for his remaining time as a Fellow.
Woosley’s update: Mike Woosley is working in the office of Sen. Chris Coons (D., Conn.) on the office’s energy and environment team. When asked why he chose to pursue a role in a personal office as opposed to a committee, Woosley explained that, while he was interested in the impact he could have on nuclear policy in either the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources or Environment and Public Works, the uncertainty brought on by the election year pushed him toward a personal office.
In the office of Sen. Coons, Woosley still has the opportunity to make an impact in the field; he estimated that he is working directly on nuclear issues more than half the time. “When I’m not covering nuclear, I’m usually covering an energy-related issue: transmission and distribution of power, grid reliability, FERC, all-of-the-above energy strategies, renewables, novel technologies. You can’t just talk about energy now without bringing in diversity and resiliency, so it’s a very natural fit for someone who is an expert in nuclear.”
Aside from drafting technical memos, meeting with other staffers, helping with the nominations of Chris Wright and Doug Burgum, and working on the Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, Woosley also has helped introduce three nuclear-related bills to the Senate: the Efficient Licensing and Hearing Act, the International Nuclear Energy Financing Act, and the International Nuclear Energy Act.
