Despite the political fireworks that Republicans have lit in calling for the resignation of the country's top nuclear regulator, the GOP seems to be facing the reality that its hands are tied without the intervention of the White House.

House Republicans this week made public the details of an ongoing spat between members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Gregory Jaczko, the agency's chairman, including a report that accuses Jaczko of abusing his authority and berating staff.

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are now calling for Jaczko to step down, and today the chairman and the four other commissioners -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- will air their dispute before a Senate committee.

Even so, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said yesterday the matter is executive in nature. He called on President Obama to weigh in.

But White House chief of staff Bill Daley said earlier this week that while the four bipartisan commissioners at the agency accused Jaczko of berating female staff members, creating a hostile work environment and being hot-tempered, his actions are not stopping the commission from functioning (E&E Daily, Dec. 13).

The Obama administration declined to send a witness to the testy Oversight committee hearing on the NRC discord yesterday, allowing Congress and the commission to take the lead. Backed by the administration, Jaczko firmly stated -- and is likely to repeat at a Senate hearing today -- that he is not guilty of any of the accusations and has no intentions to step down in the middle of such a political uproar.

Norman Ornstein, a congressional expert and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that while it is common for top federal officials under siege to go before Congress "like piñatas," it's less common for the president to step in and remove the individual.

With the administration's support and impeachment a far-off possibility, Jaczko seems likely to fulfill his chairmanship through the end of his term in June 2013, although more damning details from ongoing congressional investigations could surface. Many congressional Democrats have also come out in strong support of the chairman, saying he is a victim of an attempted coup by his NRC colleagues who side with the industry.

Now, Republicans are looking at how they can work to change the agency's policies.

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) introduced a bill yesterday to revamp rules at the agency and cuff the chairman's ability to react quickly to invoke emergency authorities.

The bill, dubbed the "Nuclear Emergency Re-Establishment of Obligations Act" (H.R. 3657), would allow an NRC chairman to use his or her emergency authority, including speaking for the entire agency, only if an "imminent safety threat" exists to materials or facilities the commission regulates -- and if top security officials confirm the threat.

The legislation would also establish a new process for transmitting documents from the agency to Congress, ensure commissioners have full access to information related to actions taken during an emergency and subject the commission's budgetary processes and approval of officers and travel to more scrutiny.

Texas Reps. Joe Barton and Michael Burgess, both Republicans and senior members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, are co-sponsors.

Such a measure aims to address some of the commissioners' complaints against Jaczko, including accusations that he abused his emergency authority in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis this spring and hid or blocked information from reaching the entire commission, Terry said. The bill would also establish new voting procedures to address complaints from proponents of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository that Jaczko dragged his feet while voting on whether to shut down the agency's review of the repository for political reasons.

"This is a dysfunctional organization and they lack the rules within that [agency] to be functional," Terry said. "I even quipped out of frustration that this may be the most secretive organization in Washington, D.C."

Terry said the legislation is not "anti-Jaczko" and that he consulted with industry and the NRC commissioners. Even some Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee support the measure but won't sign on because they fear the reaction of other powerful members of their party, he said.

"We shopped it around to several Democrats. Several have said from our committee only, 'This is a really good bill, but I'm not getting on it' ... because [Democratic Reps. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Henry Waxman of California] are protecting Jaczko," he said.