So far 21 out of 23 members of President Biden’s cabinet have been confirmed. Since the last time we covered this topic. there have been 6 more confirmations.
Deb Haaland was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 51 to 40 as the Secretary of Interior. The majority of the nay votes came from Republicans. With that being said, GOP Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan, and Lisa Lindsey of Alaska all voted yes. Deb Haaland broke records when she was confirmed as the first Native American to serve as a secretary in a cabinet. However, this isn’t the first time she has broken records. She was the second Native American to be elected to Congress. She said in her confirmation hearings that climate change is the “biggest challenge in our lifetime” and creating clean energy is her top priority.
The Next member to be confirmed is Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security. This isn’t the first time Mayorkas served in the Homeland Security branch, as from 2013 to 2016 he was the deputy under President Obama. The vote for his confirmation was 56–43, with six Republicans voting yes. Like Haaland he is breaking records, as he is the first Latino and the first immigrant to run the department. While serving in this role he says his top priority is dealing with extremist terrorist groups within the United States.
Merrick Garland was confirmed March 10 as the Attorney General. His confirmation vote was 70–30. Garland has been a Judge for the D.C.circuit Courts of Appeals since 1997. In his confirmation hearings he told the Senate the attacks on the Capitol are his main priority at this point in time.
Thomas Vilsack was confirmed on February 23, with almost full support of the Senate with a vote of 92–7. This is the second time serving in this position. Under President Obama he served from 2009–17. He is one of the longest serving Secretaries of Agriculture in history. Since 2017, he has been the CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export council. He says he’s going to spend his time promoting Biofuels to help combat the climate change crisis.
Marcia Fudge was confirmed by the Senate on March 10th. The vote for her confirmation was 68–34. As the HUD director her main priority is going to be making sure the housing crisis is hit head on to get homeless people off the streets and creating more affordable housing. Some experts say the housing crisis is the worst since the great depression.
Marty Walsh was confirmed to serve as Secretary of Labor with a vote of 68–29 on March 22nd. He is the first to be a union member to serve in this role in nearly 50 years. As Secretary he wants to be more worker oriented than company oriented like the past administration. He was elected Mayor of Boston in 2014 and was the head of the Building and Construction Trades Council from 2001–03.
