The Senate approved Deb Haaland to lead the U.S. Department of Interior on Monday, sealing President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to “ensure tribes have a seat at the table at the highest levels of the federal government.”
Haaland, a Democrat from New Mexico, was confirmed by a 51 to 40 tally, becoming the nation’s first Native American Cabinet secretary.
“My life experiences give me hope for the future,” Haaland tweeted on March 4 after the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced her nomination. “If an Indigenous woman from humble beginnings can be confirmed as Secretary of the @Interior, our country and its promise still holds true for everyone.”
My life experiences give me hope for the future. If an Indigenous woman from humble beginnings can be confirmed as Secretary of the @Interior, our country and its promise still holds true for everyone.
— Deb Haaland (@DebHaalandNM) March 4, 2021
Four Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting for her historic confirmation. Senator Susan Collins from Maine was reportedly the first to publicly announce support for Haaland, referencing her “deep knowledge of tribal issues.” Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Dan Sullivan (AK) also voted in support.
Haaland, 60, is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, a federally recognized tribe in the west-central part of her home state, near Albuquerque. A 35th generation resident of New Mexico, Haaland said “growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce.” During her testimony before senators, Haaland described her history of being a single mother who sometimes lived paycheck to paycheck and relied on food stamps.
She joined environmental activists and members of other tribes that came together at the Standing Rock Sioux camps in 2016 to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. In 2018, Haaland became one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. She was re-elected for a second term in November.
Thank you to the U.S. Senate for your confirmation vote today. As Secretary of @Interior, I look forward to collaborating with all of you. I am ready to serve. #BeFierce
— Deb Haaland (@DebHaalandNM) March 15, 2021
Haaland takes over an Interior Department that, according to its website, “conserves and manages America’s lands, water, wildlife, and energy resources, honors our nation’s responsibilities to tribal nations, and advocates for America’s island communities.”
She has promised to listen and work with both Democrats and Republicans, “honor the sovereignty of Tribal nations,” and “be a fierce advocate for our public lands.”
✅ I will ensure that the Interior Department’s decisions are based on science.
✅ I will honor the sovereignty of Tribal nations and recognize their part in America’s story.
✅ And I will be a fierce advocate for our public lands.— Deb Haaland (@DebHaalandNM) February 24, 2021
As The New York Times reported, Haaland will be the first Native American to “oversee 500 million acres of public lands, including national parks, oil and gas drilling sites, and endangered species habitat, and control the federal agencies most responsible for the well-being of the nation’s 1.9 million Indigenous people.” According to the Associated Press, “the Interior Department has broad oversight over nearly 600 federally recognized tribes.”
The DOI employs approximately 70,000 people working in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, National Park Service, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Biden has promoted Haaland as a component of an incoming administration that would “confront the climate crisis, protect our air and water, and deliver justice to communities that have long shouldered the burdens of environmental harms.”
I’m ready to build back better. #Inauguration2021 #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/WYv5npbpnM
— Deb Haaland (@DebHaalandNM) January 20, 2021
Several Republicans have described Haaland’s personal views as “radical,” citing her support for the Green New Deal and opposition to resource development and fossil fuel extraction on public lands. During her two-day confirmation hearing in February, GOP leaders questioned Haaland on her environmental stances, which they said would negatively impact some states and could leave workers currently employed by extraction industries without jobs.
Sen. Murkowski, who voted to approve Haaland, had previously said, “there is a definite threat to the resource industry that our state is blessed to be able to host.”
Haaland acknowledged the “transition” away from fossil fuels like oil and natural gas “is not going to happen overnight” as federal policy shifts toward Biden’s long-term goal of net-zero carbon emissions. She vowed to “strike the right balance” if confirmed.
“It is President Biden’s agenda, not my own agenda, that I will be moving forward,” Haaland said.
Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming accused the Biden administration of undermining America’s energy production, saying “the president is taking a sledgehammer to Western states’ economies.”
As The New York Times reported:
Mr. Biden’s Interior Department will ultimately be defined by its reversals on fossil fuels after four years in which the Trump administration aggressively pursued energy production on public lands.
At Ms. Haaland’s confirmation hearing Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, noted that she has advocated for keeping fossil fuels “in the ground.” He pressed her on where oil and gas workers in his state and others that depend on drilling will work if Mr. Biden’s drilling pause becomes permanent.
Ms. Haaland sought to reassure Republicans that she would enact Mr. Biden’s policies of pausing future fracking, not banning it. In fact, Mr. Biden’s position is not far from Ms. Haaland’s. He campaigned on a promise of “banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters,” and it remains unclear for now whether the Biden administration will move forward with a permanent moratorium.
Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, issued a statement following Haaland’s hearing that claimed she “will be unable to separate from her progressive agenda,” criticizing her “hostile record towards energy, natural resources and sportsmen.”
This week's hearing confirmed what I feared from Rep. Haaland’s record and our one-on-one conversation—she’s a hardline ideologue with radical views out of touch with Montana and the West.
Full statement on why I'm opposing @JoeBiden's @Interior Secretary nominee here: pic.twitter.com/AABXvxe8wZ
— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) February 24, 2021
“Her record speaks for itself,” said Sen. Daines. “She’s a die-hard, far-left ideologue.”
According to the NY Times, Biden has already appointed almost 50 DOI officials before Haaland’s confirmation, many of whom were part of the Obama administration. The outlet notes, “the department has suspended lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico under an early executive order imposing a temporary freeze on new drilling leases on all public lands and waters…frozen drilling activity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuse…delayed Trump-era rollback on protections of migratory birds and the northern spotted owl, and taken the first steps in restoring two national monuments in Utah and one off the Atlantic coast that Mr. Trump largely dismantled.”
Some Biden advisors had expressed concerns that Haaland lacks policy experience. However, her supporters, such as House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), dismissed those suggestions as coming from “insiders who rotate in and out of Democratic administrations.”
“The Department of Interior was essentially set up not to take care of Indigenous people – it was set up to tear them down and disenfranchise them,” Congressman Grijalva (D-AZ) has previously said. “To come full circle, historically, and to put an Indigenous person in front of Interior who can do the job – you don’t often get that kind of opportunity to make history.”
The Washington Post had identified another Native American, Michael L. Connor, as a potential nominee for the job. He had served as deputy Interior secretary in the Obama administration. Connor’s maternal grandfather was a member of Taos Pueblos, but he is not an enrolled member of the tribe.
Tom Udall, a Democrat who recently retired as a New Mexico senator, was also considered a contender. His father, Stewart, was Interior secretary in the 1960s, and the longtime congressman had experience working with Biden.
.@sunrisemvmt joins other progressive groups in calling for Sen. Udall to support Rep. Haaland as the next secretary of the Interior Dept.
Udall and Haaland are both on Biden's shortlist for the post. pic.twitter.com/Rj2Am4ZMCS
— Chris D'Angelo (@c_m_dangelo) December 11, 2020
Progressive activist groups had asked Udall, who is white, to remove his name for consideration.
Haaland’s nomination was pushed by liberal members of Congress, civil rights organizations, climate activists, tribal leaders, and Hollywood celebrities. Several women working in the industry signed a letter in December asking Mr. Biden and Kamala Harris to choose Haaland for the Cabinet position.
“We believe it is critical at this time for the first Native American to serve in the President’s Cabinet, so we can begin to shift the focus back to caring for future generations and returning to the value system that honors Mother Earth,” the letter reads. “Rep. Haaland will be a strong steward of our precious natural resources and will return to the practice of science-based decision-making.”
The endorsement was reportedly signed by international pop icon Cher, actress Jane Fonda, and comedienne Chelsea Handler, among others.
Haaland has said she hoped her nomination would inspire Americans “moving forward together as one nation and creating opportunities for all of us.”
Her mother served in the U.S. Navy and worked for the Bureau of Indian Education for more than two decades. Haaland’s father was a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran who fought in Vietnam. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.