Senate confirms Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Monday confirmed Rep. Deb Haaland, D-New Mexico, to lead the U.S. Department of the Interior, making her the first Native American cabinet secretary in the nation’s history.
The 51-40 vote places Haaland in control of the agency that manages a “vast portfolio of federal land and the oil and mineral wealth that lies beneath it,” The Washington Post reported.
Meanwhile, NPR noted the agency is expected to play a crucial role in the Biden administration’s efforts to combat climate change and to implement ambitious conservation plans.
Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, will take control of a department that also oversees 574 federally recognized Native American and Alaskan Native communities.
According to the Post, Haaland’s family ties in the country can be traced back 35 generations.
“Indian Country has shouted from the valleys, from the mountaintops that it’s time. It’s overdue,” Pueblo tribal member Stephine Poston told NPR after Haaland was nominated.
Four Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Haaland, the Post reported.
