The Senate voted 51 to 40 on Monday to confirm the congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico to become Secretary of the Interior, making her the first Indian to hold a cabinet secretary position.
After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the confirmation on the Senate floor was a ‘big step forward’.
“Now it creates a government that better embodies the full wealth and diversity of this country,” Schumer said. “We have known for so long that the Indian community has been treated badly and we have a long way to go.”
As head of the Department of Home Affairs, Haaland will lead a department that oversees the country’s public and tribal countries. Haaland, a member of Laguna’s Pueblo, will also work to restore trust between the country’s 574 federal tribes and a department that has abused and neglected indigenous people.
Before the vote on Monday night, Schumer said Haaland was “making history twice”, referring to her victory in the election to become a congresswoman and now her confirmation to lead a federal department. Haaland, elected in 2018 along with Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids of Kansas, were the first Native American women to be elected to Congress.
“The confirmation of Representative Haaland represents a huge step forward in the creation of a government that represents the full wealth and diversity of this country, because Native Americans have been neglected at cabinet level and in so many other places for far too long,” Schumer said. added.
Tribal leaders and progressives have the Biden Administration to nominate Haaland to head the Department of Home Affairs. During her opening speech at her confirmation hearing, Haaland acknowledged the historical nature of the nomination.
“The historical nature of my confirmation is not lost on me, but I will say that it is not about me,” she said. “On the contrary, I hope this nomination will be an inspiration to Americans to move forward together as one nation and create opportunities for all of us.”
Haaland has faced opposition from several Republican senators, who disagree with her support for the Green New Deal and her opposition to fossil fuel projects and hydraulic fracturing, also known as hydrofracking. When asked about her opposition to hydrofracking and fossil fuels during her confirmation hearing, Haaland confirmed to senators that she had President Joe Biden’s agenda of Mr. Praying will apply. Mr. Biden supports a ban on hydrofracking in federal states, but is against a comprehensive ban on hydrofracking.
“I want to make sure that if I am confirmed that we are looking at things and working to find the right balance,” Haaland said in her confirmation hearing to Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming. “We need to care as much about the environment as we do about the fossil fuel infrastructure in your state and other states. We need to balance the priorities.”
Despite any opposition to her nomination, four Senate Republicans – Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine – voted to confirm.