President Trump fired a Democratic member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Christopher Hanson, expanding a power struggle over so-called independent agencies.
“All organizations are more effective when leaders are rowing in the same direction,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said. “President Trump reserves the right to remove employees within his own Executive Branch who exert his executive authority.”
Trump's action is part of a broader effort to increase nuclear energy production, which has long been touted by advocates as a reliable alternative to so-called renewables.
Hanson is the first person to be fired from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since it was established in 1975. He was first nominated by Trump in 2020 and was recently re-appointed until 2029.
In a statement, Hanson said Trump “terminated my position with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission without cause, contrary to existing law and long-standing precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointees.”
Hanson's job fell under scrutiny after an executive order that Trump signed in May that called for a fourfold increase in nuclear energy production by 2050.
The executive order criticized the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees nuclear safety, for blocking new reactors and called for the agency to be reformed.
"Instead of efficiently promoting safe, abundant nuclear energy, the NRC has instead tried to insulate Americans from the most remote risks without appropriate regard for the severe domestic and geopolitical costs of such risk aversion," the order says.
Trump's shakeup at the nuclear commission is his latest effort to assert executive authority over independent agencies, which many see as unaccountable to the people.
Trump's view of executive power was partially endorsed by the Supreme Court in May, when it upheld the president's power to fire agency members "without cause" in a temporary ruling.
In a legal setback for Trump, a federal judge this week reinstated three Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
As the Trump administration sees it, the president is the ultimate executive authority and therefore has the power to fire people at nominally independent agencies. Trump's critics say he is making a power grab that undermines the intent of Congress.
“Congress explicitly created the NRC as an independent agency, insulated from the whims of any president, knowing that was the only way to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the American people,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said in a statement.
