Deb Haaland confirmed as first Native American Cabinet secretary

The Senate on Monday voted to confirm Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., as President Joe Biden’s secretary of the Department of the Interior, making the second-term Democrat the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

The vote was 51-40, with four Republicans joining Democrats in favor.

Haaland, an enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo, earned bipartisan support to run the Interior department, which has a staff of 70,000 employees and is charged with overseeing the country’s natural resources. The agency manages nearly 500 million acres of land, or one-fifth of the surface area of the United States.

Haaland’s confirmation fills one of the few remaining vacancies in Biden’s Cabinet, nearly two months after he was sworn in. With most of the major posts now occupied, the outstanding positions include United States trade representative, Labor secretary, and Health and Human Services secretary.

“We’ve now made history twice in the last few minutes,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the vote, noting that Haaland was the first Native American Interior secretary as well as the first Native American Cabinet secretary.

The confirmation marks a victory for progressives who championed Haaland’s nomination, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Haaland, a supporter of the Green New Deal, was one of the co-chairs of Warren’s 2020 campaign for president.

Republicans sought to wield Haaland’s progressive stances against her during her confirmation hearings last month. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., pressed Haaland on her support for the Green New Deal and the declining number of jobs available in the fossil fuel industry.