Biden reportedly picks Deb Haaland for interior secretary
By: Rachel Ramirez (Vox)
Deb Haaland would become the first Native American Cabinet member if confirmed by the Senate
I don't know Deb Haaland, but Kavika says she'd be good, and he does know...
It seems to me that Interior should always be held by a Native American
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In 2018, Rep. Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo member in New Mexico, made history as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress .
Now Haaland is set to make history again. The Washington Post has reported that Biden has chosen her to head the Interior Department.
Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) at a press
conference on September 10 in Washington, DC.
Jemal Countess/Green New Deal Network/Getty Images
Nominating Haaland as secretary of the interior is a significant move for the department that manages the country's natural resources and public and tribal lands. Haaland already had the support of numerous House Democrats and had been vetted by Biden's team weeks ago. But the road to the decision was difficult, sources told Reuters, considering it would narrow the Democratic Party's already slimmed-down majority in the House of Representatives in 2021. Then, on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying that she too backed Haaland for the position.
"It's nice that a Native American in a Cabinet-level position is a consideration to lead our country for the president-elect," Haaland told Vox last month. "It would be symbolic, it would be profound, when we think about how the federal government essentially threw out their federal Indian policies throughout the centuries."
Haaland is familiar with the Indigenous struggle of lacking resources. She is a single mother who relied on food stamps and put herself through college before starting her own business and becoming a tribal administrator. As the former state Democratic Party chair in New Mexico, she witnessed firsthand how government leaders take over tribal lands for oil and gas operations and corporate profit. Shealso fought alongside Indigenous activists during the Standing Rock protests to protect tribal sovereignty against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This narrative, activists say, reflects what most tribal communities continue to face in their daily lives and is further proof as to why the position would be best filled by an Indigenous member.
"With the growing land back movement that exists in Indigenous communities, where we're calling for many public lands to be returned back into Indian hands, it'd be great to have Deb there, recognizing that it is movements like ours that also have to keep people like her in those positions accountable," Nick Tilsen, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota and CEO of NDN Collective, an organization dedicated to building Indigenous power, told Vox. "That purely representation isn't always power, but representation that is accountable to its people — that's power."
As a member of Congress, Haaland has been the vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and the chair of the subcommittee on national parks, forests, and public lands. She also sits on the subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States. Haaland told Vox that a bulk of her job involves listening to testimonies from community members, many of whom she said have expressed concerns regarding the Trump administration's move to eradicate and redevelop cultural sites and overhaul crucial environmental policies.
"Part of what needs to happen is just to make sure that we are putting back all of those scientists, all of those folks who are on the front lines, working to protect our environment immediately," Haaland said. "Trump has gutted this department and so much of those positions, and so I look to the Biden administration to do, as he says, build back better."
What Haaland can do as interior secretary
As interior secretary, Haaland will be in charge of overseeingroughly 500 million acres of surface land — one-fifth of the land in the US— as well as 1.7 billion acres of land off the nation's shores. The department also manages the country's national parks, endangered species habitats, and several oil and gas drilling sites, including the patch of land Trump is currently auctioning off in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Haaland will also manage the Bureau of Indian Education, which has been left underfunded by previous department heads in the last few years, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which oversees roughly 55 million acres of tribal land held in trust by the federal government for Native Americans. Since the department has a long history of abandoning its core responsibility to tribal nations, such as removing them from their ancestral lands and breaking treaties, native leaders and organizers believe it's all the more reason to appoint an Indigenous person to fix the cracks in the system.
"We have a whole entire department in the federal government that needs to be dismantled in many ways, because the history is that [the Interior] was created as a place to extract resources from public lands and Indigenous people," Tilsen said. "Is [Haaland] somebody that would be able to change the system? Absolutely."
Biden's appointment of Haaland aligns with the Biden-Harris plan for tribal nations, an outline his team released in October of their priorities to strengthen tribal nations and address key issues from health disparities and environmental injustice that Indigenous communities continue to face.
Haaland's appointment is "incredibly important, not just from a symbolic perspective, but also from a perspective of environmental stewardship, conservation, restoring a sense of public good and public trust," Julian Brave NoiseCat, vice president of policy and strategy for Data for Progress, and a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'escenin Canada's British Columbia, told Vox. He also said it's good for "making headway in the long fight against climate change, wherein things like drilling and leasing and what we do with public lands and natural resources are central policy questions."
If confirmed, Haaland will have to face a slew of challenges when it comes to reversing policies and measures that the previous administration has left behind. The Trump administration has used the Interior department as a key tool in fast-tracking permits and selling leases of public land for fossil fuel operations. This includes the Bureau of Land Management's sale of oil drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain, which Trump has been expediting, despite major pushback from native communities.
"We have to get back to a place where [Indigenous people] have a seat at the table," Haaland said. "I trust that will absolutely happen under a Biden administration."
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I think she will have a very rough time in getting thru her confirmation hearings due to her stance on fossil fuel and fracking. A lot will depend on how Georgia turns out.
Yes. Ironically, that one election (Georgia Senate run-off)-- for just two seats-- will be one of the most important elections in recent times. Just 2 seats -- but the results will determine which party controls the Senate!
And since the results of both the House and Presidential elections are now certain, who wins that election for those 2 seats will determine to a large degree whether a Democratic (and democratic!) agenda becomes dominant-- or whether there will mostly be "gridlock"!
Whether America will be a democracy,
Or.....
????
This is where you and I are gonna disagree a bit. I happen to think that questioning and negotiating are democratic. But I don't believe one party rule is democratic. I'm not at all happy with the political party partisanship that runs Washington these days and I wish there was a way to remove it from the equation. But IMO neither party is interested in anything than consolidation of power for itself. There's just too much money in that power.
IMO the lesser evil is gridlock as both parties have shown they are more interested in punishing their political enemies. Neither party can be trusted to govern.
I think it's important to note that even though Haaland's leaving for the Cabinet means one less vote in an already reduced House Democratic caucus, Pelosi didn't hesitate to give her accord.
It's probably a Democratic district, and they will have a special election before too long.
It is a Democratic district.
Oh that's going to piss off some logging and mining companies. LOL!
When running for her congressional seat she was asked how long she has been a resident of NM. Her response was
''I am a 35th generation, New Mexican''... A generation is usually taken to be 20 to 30 years. The Pueblo people trace their ancestry to the Anasazi people.
I am hopeful that she will be able to reverse much of the damage done by the previous two Secretaries of the Interior.
Gichi-apitendaagwad (congratulations, do well) Secretary Haaland.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is a Cabinet-level agency that manages America's vast natural and cultural resources. Our department employs some 70,000 people, including expert scientists and resource-management professionals, in nine technical bureaus:
In addition to our nine bureaus, there are a number of offices that fall under the Office of the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, Solicitor's Office and Office of the Inspector General:
It seems to me that every cabinet position in the USA and every Interior Management Bureau should be held by a Native American.
JMHO
I can't argue with that.
Congratulations Deb Haaland. You not only do your own people proud, but, also the many other Native Americans of America.
May you set an example for many others to follow in your footsteps for years to come.
Congratulations, Ms. Haaland, and good choice, President-elect Biden. It is way past time that Native Americans's underrepresentation in government was remedied.
What could be more fitting than a Native American as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior! Nothing will ever replace the theft of Native American lives and property, but, given that ultimate, complete justice is a logistical impossibility, to have Rep. Deb Haaland confirmed would be, if not complete justice, then, at least, "poetic justice" -- not retribution for past and current injustices, but a punctuation mark of sorts, pointing the Federal Government in th direction of humanism.
Talk about being the best person for the job!
Hallelujah!!! The most perfect fit for that position on so many levels.
However, she will face a Republican-controlled Senate that backs the fossil fuel industry, who will be able to hide any personal prejudices behind arguments based on the economy.
Maybe, maybe not...
Perhaps.
Actually the question of which party controls the upcoming Senate will be determined by the upcoming run-off election in Georgia (for 2 Senate seats).
I feel pretty sure the Dems will pick up one of those seats, but unfortunately I have concerns about the other one. The trilogy may have to wait for 2022.
This is a great, historic appointment, and long, long overdue. I am very pleased that Biden made this choice.
A great choice for the position. She goes in understanding many of the issues involved. For more info read this post:
She does have a very good understanding and some of the agencies that answer to the Interior are Indian Health services, Indian Education the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration.
great choice for the position. She goes in understanding many of the issues involved. For more info read this post:
Definitely one of the best choices in recent memory...perhaps even the best choice for that position ever!
I just watched President-elect Biden nominate Deb Haaland for Secretary of Interior and her acceptence speech.
In my 80 years, I never thought that I would see a Native American in a cabinet postion.
One has to understand that it was the Interior that caused so much damage to Natives and now an American Indian heads the department.
Overwhelming to say the least.