ANS Congressional Fellowship applications due

More details: Congressional Fellows can directly contribute to the federal policymaking process, working in either a U.S. senator’s or representative’s personal office or with a congressional committee. The Fellows will be responsible for supplying Congress with their expertise in nuclear science and technology, having a hand in the creation of new laws while gaining a deeper understanding of the legislative process.

Recent webinar: Earlier this month, five of ANS's past Congressional Fellows shared their unique experiences on Capitol Hill and gave insights into how they were able to have an impact on federal policy related to nuclear, exploring what they learned about the policy-making process and how ANS can continue having an impact in Washington.

Harsh Desai, the chief commercialization officer at Zeno Power and the chair of the ANS Congressional Fellowship Committee, moderated the discussion. Desai was the 2014 Congressional Fellow and worked in the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Cal).

Speaking of his experience on the Hill, Desai said during the webinar that the Congressional Fellowship was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain hands-on experience in federal policymaking” and “help shape public policy,” whether that be nuclear-specific policy or legislation that affects the entire energy sector. Desai then turned to the other Fellows, asking each of them what the most surprising thing they learned during their time in Congress was.

Joseph Orellana, a professional staff member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, answered first. Orellana was a 2023 Congressional Fellow who worked in the office of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) dealing mostly with the senator’s involvement with the Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). He was most surprised to learn that legislators’ staffers—whose work is largely invisible to the general public—have extensive involvement in drafting legislation and meeting with other offices and stakeholders.

Patrick Snouffer, senior program manager for the fuel supply chain at Zeno Power, was the 2021 Congressional Fellow and worked for Sen. Tina Smith (D., Minn.). His work involved building a clean energy plan around funding enabled by the reconciliation process that was happening at the time. He pointed to “the small business nature” of each congressional office and how each office was markedly different from the next as one of the Hill’s most unexpected aspects.

Bradley Williams, senior policy advisor at Idaho National Laboratory, was the 2020 Congressional Fellow. He worked for Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), then chair of the EPW, and focused primarily on the drafting of the ADVANCE Act. Williams was surprised by the deeply bipartisan and collaborative nature of nuclear, saying that—despite disagreements over other areas in policy—most people and legislators agree on what needs to happen in nuclear and “work well together behind closed doors.”

Emily Caffrey, assistant professor and program director for the Master’s in Health Physics Program at the University of Alabama–Birmingham, was a 2024 Congressional Fellow and also worked under Sen. Whitehouse. She spent her term in the Senate Budget Committee and played a part in helping finally pass the ADVANCE Act that Williams had helped draft four years prior and that Orellana had worked on in 2023. For her, the most unexpected aspect of Congress was the interdisciplinary nature of each staffer’s role. While ANS Fellows primarily inform and assist on matters of nuclear energy, as explained by her and other fellows—and as evidenced by their work with the ADVANCE Act—the role touches on every aspect of clean energy policy.

Go deeper: To watch the full conversation, where the Fellows do a dive deep on their contrasting experiences working with legislators, click here.