The Senate voted Monday 51 to 40 to confirm the congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico to be Secretary of the Interior, making her the first Native American to hold a Cabinet Secretary position.
After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor that his confirmation was a “big step forward.”
“It now creates a government that embodies more of this country’s wealth and diversity,” Schumer said. “We know that for so long the Native American community has been mistreated and we have a long way to go.”
As head of the Interior Department, Haaland will lead a department tasked with overseeing and protecting the country’s public and tribal lands. Haaland, a member of Pueblo of Laguna, will also work to restore trust between the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes and a department that has mistreated and neglected indigenous peoples.
Before Monday night’s vote, Schumer said Haaland “made history twice,” citing her election victory to become a congresswoman and now her confirmation to head a federal department. Haaland, elected in 2018 along with Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids of Kansas, they were the first Native American women elected to Congress.
“Representative Haaland’s confirmation represents a giant step forward in creating a government that represents the wealth and diversity of this country because Native Americans were too long neglected at the cabinet level and in many other places,” he added. Schumer.
Tribal leaders and progressives pushed the Biden Administration appoint Haaland to head the Home Office. During his initial statements at his confirmation hearing, Haaland acknowledged the historical nature of the nomination.
“I don’t miss the historical nature of my confirmation, but I will say it doesn’t treat me,” he said. “Rather, I hope this nomination will be an inspiration to Americans, moving forward together as one nation and creating opportunities for all of us.”
Haaland faced opposition from several Republican senators, who disagreed with his support for the Green New Deal and his opposition to fossil fuel projects and hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. When asked about his opposition to fracking and fossil fuels during his confirmation hearing, Haaland told senators he would enact President Joe Biden’s agenda, Mr. Biden. Biden supports the ban on fracking in federal lands, but opposes the radical ban on fracking.
“I want to make sure that if they confirm to me that we are looking at things and working to achieve the right balance,” Haaland told Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming in his confirmation hearing. “We need to care about both the environment and the fossil fuel infrastructure of your state and other states. We need to balance those priorities.”
Despite some opposition to his nomination, four Senate Republicans – Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine – voted to confirm this.