[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 127 (Monday, November 13, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S10861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         EDWARD McGAFFIGAN, JR.

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was 
established on January 19, 1975, to regulate the Nation's civilian 
nuclear power industry. Since then, 25 men and three women have served 
as members of that commission. Members are appointed by the President 
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate for 5-year terms. On 
November 3, Commissioner Ed McGaffigan, Jr. became the longest serving 
member of the NRC. Of the 28 men and women who have served as 
commissioners since 1975, only 6 have been reappointed to a second 
term. Only one, Ed McGaffigan, has been reappointed to a third term. 
First appointed by President Clinton in 1996, Ed was reappointed to a 
second term in 2000, and reappointed by President Bush to a third term 
in 2005.
  The Senate rarely confirms NRC nominations before the date set by law 
for the term to begin, so none of the six commissioners who have served 
2-year terms have served a full 10 years. Until this month, the longest 
serving NRC commissioner was Kenneth Rogers, who served a week short of 
9 years and 11 months. On November 3 of this year, Ed McGaffigan broke 
that record.
  Length of time in office, of course, is not an end in itself. How 
long a commissioner serves is not as important as how well he or she 
serves the public interest while on the commission. By this measure, 
too, Ed McGaffigan stands out.
  Congress created the Nuclear Regulatory Commission not to promote 
nuclear power but to regulate nuclear power. The commission's job, in 
the words of the Atomic Energy Act, is to ``promote the common defense 
and security and to protect the health and safety of the public.'' Ed 
has taken those words to heart.
  Throughout his time on the commission, Ed has worked to improve the 
efficiency and the effectiveness of the NRC's regulatory programs. He 
has been instrumental in improving the reactor oversight process, 
focusing it more directly on risks and on activities important to plant 
safety and, at the same time, making it more transparent and open to 
the public. Following 9/11, he helped revamp the NRC's security and 
emergency preparedness programs to strengthen the Nation's nuclear 
facilities against the possibility of a terrorist attack. He has helped 
lay the groundwork for licensing the next generation of nuclear 
powerplants, new uranium enrichment plants, and the nuclear waste 
depository. He has also taken an active role in managing the generation 
change confronting the NRC by helping to hire and train a new 
generation of nuclear regulators to replace the current generation 
which is now retiring. He is a firm but fair regulator and an effective 
nuclear safety watchdog.
  I take special interest in Ed's achievements on the commission 
because Ed was one of the first people I hired when I came to the 
Senate in 1983. He was a legislative assistant. Later he was my 
legislative director and, finally, my senior policy adviser. He was my 
right hand on defense and technology policy, on personnel and 
acquisition reform, on nuclear nonproliferation and export control 
policy, all of that until he joined the NRC in 1996.
  Ed had already established himself as a brilliant physicist and a 
dedicated public servant before I hired him. He had earned degrees in 
physics from both Harvard and Cal Tech and in public policy from 
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He had served in the Foreign 
Service. He had been a science attache at our embassy in Moscow. He 
held simultaneous senior posts on both the staff of the National 
Security Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He 
was, in short, an established expert on science and technology and 
energy and defense issues when he joined my staff. As a newly elected 
Senator, I was indeed fortunate to have his counsel at the start of my 
work here in the Senate. He is an invaluable ally, a tenacious 
adversary, and a fine human being. I am honored to have his friendship.
  It comes as no surprise to me that Ed has served the commission as 
long or as ably as he has. He has devoted his career to public service. 
He has served us well with his scientific skill, his expert knowledge, 
and his sound judgment.
  At his third confirmation hearing before the Committee on Environment 
and Public Works last year, Ed spoke movingly of his Irish immigrant 
father. He had encouraged Ed to ``dream big dreams'' and taught him, by 
acting on those dreams, to make them possible. In a lifetime of public 
service, Ed has dreamed big dreams and the Nation is better for it.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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