District of Columbia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm issued the following statement on President Biden’s intent to nominate Jeff Marootian for Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy: 

“Jeff Marootian has spent the last year and a half helping to build our team at the Department of Energy, and I am pleased that President Biden has now nominated him to serve as our new Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Throughout his impressive career in public service, Jeff has directed big teams executing challenging missions, making him a natural fit to lead the Department’s largest applied energy office. His experience developing and implementing sustainable transportation policy at the federal and local level will be particularly invaluable in our ongoing effort to decarbonize America’s transportation sector and meet our bold clean energy goals.” 

About Jeff Marootian 

Jeff Marootian currently serves as a Special Assistant to the President in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Prior to his service in the Biden-Harris Administration, he was a member of the Biden-Harris Transition Team. Marootian previously served in Washington D.C. government as the Director of the District Department of Transportation, where he piloted sustainable transportation technologies, oversaw the effort to electrify the city’s Circulator bus fleet, and led the city’s early adoption of the Transportation and Climate Initiative. Marootian oversaw the modernization of hundreds of miles of roads and sidewalks and advanced critical infrastructure projects, such as the reconstruction of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and expansion of dedicated bus and bike lanes.  

Marootian previously served in the Obama-Biden Administration as the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Chief Sustainability Officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He is an alumnus of The George Washington University where he has also taught as an adjunct faculty member in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Administration. 

In anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling that would criminalize rights long held by women and our LGBTQ community, today, Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau, along Chairman Phil Mendelson, Councilmembers Anita Bonds, Charles Allen, Vincent Gray, Christina Henderson, Janeese Lewis George, Elissa Silverman, Robert White, and Kenyan McDuffie, introduced the Human Rights Sanctuary Amendment Act of 2022.

“It is rare that we get a sneak peek into a court decision that will have such a devastating impact to our residents, and it’s clear from the draft opinion that even more than the right to abortion is at stake,” said Nadeau. “Under Samuel Alito’s regressive, political, results-oriented reading of the Constitution, all substantive due process and equal protection rights, such as the rights to marriage, non-procreative sexual conduct, and the use of contraception are under threat. With this legislation I am hoping we can solidify the rights of our own residents as well as those who may now be forced to travel here to preserve their own.”

Earlier this week, Politico circulated a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization suggesting that the Supreme Court will eliminate the constitutional right to abortion later this year. At a press conference with other government representatives on Tuesday, Nadeau promised District residents that she would take legislative action to defend the rights protected by Roe v. Wade.

Nadeau has been involved with Planned Parenthood since high school, and recounted in the press conference Tuesday that it was the March for Women’s Lives of 2004 that inspired her to change her career focus to government and political work.

The proposed legislation would prevent the District from cooperating with investigations in furtherance of proceedings that seek to impose civil or criminal liability for the protected conduct identified in the statute. It also creates a private right of action against parties who successfully bring Texas-style bounty claims against others for engaging in protected conduct.

The bill is modeled, in part, on Connecticut’s recently passed Reproductive Freedom Defense Act.  It protects the rights of District residents to live with whom they please, love whom they love, and control their reproductive destinies. It makes the District a safe haven for trans youth who need gender-affirming care, LGBTQ+ individuals who need to preserve their families, and all people who need reproductive freedom to flourish as meaningful participants in American life.

“While I am hurt and horrified by the assault on human rights perpetrated by the Supreme Court,” Nadeau added, “I am resolved to do all that I can to protect women and other District residents whose liberties are endangered.”