More than 11 months since she was nominated to become the only Black member of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Board of Directors, Memphian Patrice Robinson is still waiting to take her seat. The nomination awaits approval from the Senate Environment and Public Works committee.
Robinson, a former Memphis City Council member, was nominated by President Joe Biden to the nine-member TVA board on September 11, 2023. She has yet to be confirmed. In fact, she has not even had a confirmation hearing, and it doesn’t look like one will be scheduled any time soon.
“I am still waiting to be confirmed by the Senate. This has just not been a priority,” Robinson said. “It has been a little nerve-wracking, but I am not there yet.”
Currently, eight people are seated on the nine-member board. All are white. None are from West Tennessee.
A federally owned utility company, TVA supplies electricity to parts of seven states. It is the exclusive supplier of electricity to Memphis. As TVA’s single largest power customer, city-owned Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) pays $1 billion a year for electricity. Yet the city has not had anyone on the TVA board since John Ryder, a Memphis attorney and former general counsel for the Republican National Committee, who died in May 2022, just months after leaving the board.
That is unacceptable, said state Rep. Justin J. Pearson.
“It is imperative that we get representation on the TVA board,” said Pearson (D-Memphis), a frequent critic of TVA. “We provide a significant amount of revenue for TVA. And we in Memphis have the greatest energy burden for any place in the country. We are spending a lot of our money on energy. Our voice is critically important.”
When contacted July 25 about the status of Robinson’s approval, a spokesperson for the the Senate Environment and Public Works committee offered a one-line email response: “The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has yet to schedule further consideration of Patrice Robinson’s nomination.”
Gridlock on Congressional confirmations is nothing new and not unique to Robinson’s appointment. On July 30 at a U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration hearing, an official with the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service urged Congress to streamline the process of approving presidential appointments, which she said hurts local communities and even threatens national security.
“The work required to select, nominate, and vote on presidential appointees is longer, more complicated, and more uncertain,” testified Jenny Mattingly of Partnership for Public Service in a written statement. “Many positions remain vacant for months or even years; some never will be filled.”
Previous appointments to the TVA board have also waited long periods before getting confirmed. Current board member Beth Geer of Brentwood, who works as the chief of staff for former vice president Al Gore, and two others, were first nominated in spring of 2021 but waited until December of 2022 to be approved.