US Senate confirms Deb Haaland as Secretary of Interior

United States Senate has confirmed Deb Haaland as the Secretary of the Interior. She becomes the first Native American to lead a cabinet agency and securing a central role in President Joe Biden’s sweeping plans to fight climate change.

 

The Senate confirmed the New Mexico Democrat representative 51-40 after she clinched support from Republicans including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Alaska Senator Lisa



Murkowski. Sixty-year old Haaland became one of the first two Native American women elected to the Congress in 2018. Her ascension to the cabinet followed weeks of campaigning by Native American tribes and environmental groups in support of her historic appointment.

 

Haaland will oversee policies guiding use of 500 million acres of federal and tribal land, a fifth of the nation’s surface