Senator to ARPA-E pick: 'Why are you sitting here?'
President Trump's pick to lead the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy denied yesterday he was chosen to "put the nail in the coffin" for the Department of Energy branch, which is targeted for elimination by the White House.
Questions about the obvious split between Trump's budget request and the president's nomination of an ARPA-E director popped up several times at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to consider two DOE contenders.
At one point, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) asked Lane Genatowski, the ARPA-E director nominee, "Why are you sitting here?" considering the White House's push to zero out ARPA-E funding the past two budget cycles.
"You can't be two people. Do you support the president's budget, or do you think ARPA-E has an important mission?" King asked.
Genatowski answered he supported the president's budget but also wanted to become director, to put an oar in the water and "help it out."
"I guess, in my mind, I can hold both concepts, and they wouldn't be inconsistent. If Congress votes to appropriate money and authorizes money to be appropriated to run ARPA-E. The president signs the bill ... and I'd like to be the person [who] runs it," he said..
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) quizzed Genatowski about who vetted him for the position, and whether administration officials talked to him about plans to put ARPA-E "to rest" and "close it up."
"Not one minute," Genatowski said in response.
"The people who vetted me, I guess, picked me because they thought if it wasn't closed down, I could add something,"
