A U.S. Senate committee unexpectedly postponed a vote on Lee Beaman, President Donald Trump’s final and most scrutinized nominee to the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors to undergo a hearing this year.
The Committee on Environment and Public Works was scheduled to vote on Beaman’s nomination at a business meeting Wednesday morning, but the panel’s top members said the vote would not occur as scheduled. The committee must approve TVA nominees before they move to a full Senate confirmation vote.
Beaman, 74, was an influential Nashville executive as CEO of the Beaman Automotive Group, a chain of car dealerships he sold in 2020. He is CEO and chair of Beaman Ventures and a major donor to Republican causes and campaigns.
“We will consider that nomination at another time,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the chair of the panel.
(READ MORE: 5 takeaways on TVA’s future under Trump from Senate hearing)
Beaman’s nomination already faced a delay when his paperwork was not completed in time for a committee hearing where the four other Trump nominees to the TVA board appeared in October. Those four nominees — Knoxville attorney Jeff Hagood, Memphis health care executive Mitch Graves, Alabama insurance agent Randall Jones and Florida Public Service Commissioner Art Graham — cleared the committee 10-9 in October with no support from Democrats.
The Trump nominees will need approval from a majority of senators before they can join the TVA board. They could get sworn in with no Democratic support, since they need a simple majority in a body controlled by 53 Republicans.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the committee, said there was a “cloud of confusion” around Beaman’s involvement as campaign treasurer for U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Columbia, and the businessman’s ownership of properties in Washington where House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has reportedly stayed.
“He’s not just unqualified, but he’s unfit,” Whitehouse said of Beaman. “I think it would serve the committee well to understand that and get good answers before we go on.”
Beaman did not respond by phone Wednesday to answer questions on the postponement and his nomination. If confirmed, Beaman would have the longest tenure of the Trump nominees. His term would expire in May 2030.
The committee took its other scheduled vote on the nomination of Douglas Weaver to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The committee cleared Weaver to a full Senate vote by a 15-4 vote, with four Democrats opposing the Trump nominee.
PARTY LINES
The TVA nominees would join the board of the nation’s largest government-owned power provider at a critical time. TVA, based in Knoxville with its largest operations hub in Chattanooga, generates electricity used by more than 10 million people in seven states.
TVA is facing projections of fast growth in power demand after a stagnant period when it closed multiple coal-fired power plants. The federal entity dates back to the Great Depression, though it has funded its own operations for decades through sales of wholesale electricity to local utilities and major industrial customers.
Trump fired three members of the TVA board this year who were nominated by former President Joe Biden. Unlike when he fired two TVA directors in his first term, Trump did not publicly explain the reason for the latest firings.
The board has operated without a quorum since April and has met three times without the ability to vote on new business or policies. The board has acted on some measures to ensure continued operations.
The stark party lines drawn in a committee vote in October for four Trump nominees stands in contrast to when the committee considered a batch of nominees in 2022.
Under a Senate narrowly controlled by Democrats, the committee unanimously approved by voice vote five of the Biden nominees. Two of those nominees, Joe Ritch of Alabama and Michelle Moore of Virginia, were fired by Trump earlier this year.
Beth Geer, the sixth Biden nominee and chief of staff for former Vice President Al Gore, narrowly passed the committee with the vote of one Republican and all Democrats. Her nomination was stalled because of a one-word tweet from 2015 in which she called Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s response to former President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address “hideous.” Ernst was one of the Republicans on the panel at the time.
Contact business reporter Daniel Dassow at ddassow@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.