WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A key Senate committee on Thursday approved the nomination of New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to be interior secretary, clearing the way for a Senate vote that is likely to make her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Haaland\u2019s nomination, 11-9, sending it to the Senate floor. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the lone Republican to support Haaland, who won unanimous backing from committee Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Murkowski, a former chair of the committee, said she had \u201csome real misgivings\u201d about Haaland, because of her support for policies that Murkowski said could impede Alaska\u2019s reliance on oil and other fossil fuels. But the senator said she would place her \u201ctrust\u201d in Haaland\u2019s word that she would work with her and other Alaskans to support the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her vote comes with a warning, Murkowski added: She expects Haaland \u201cwill be true to her word\u201d to help Alaska. Haaland was not in the committee room, but Murkowski addressed her directly, saying, \u201cI will hold you to your commitments.\u2019’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cQuite honestly,\u2019’ Murkowski added, \u201cwe need you to be a success.\u2019’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Maria Cantwell of Washington state both called the committee vote historic, and both said they were disappointed at the anti-Haaland rhetoric used by several Republicans. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the panel\u2019s top Republican, and other GOP senators have repeatedly called Haaland\u2019s views \u201cradical\u201d and extreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heinrich said he voted for two interior secretaries nominated by former President Donald Trump \u201cwhose views (in support of expanded drilling and other resource extraction) may have been considered quite radical by many of my constituents.\u201d Still, he never used that word to describe them, Heinrich said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heinrich, who lives in Haaland\u2019s district, said she \u201calways has an open door and an open mind\u201d to a range of views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee vote follows an announcement Wednesday by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that she will support Haaland in the full Senate. Her vote, along with Murkowski\u2019s, makes Haaland\u2019s confirmation by the Senate nearly certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The panel\u2019s chairman, Sen. Joe Manchin, announced his support for Haaland last week. Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, said Thursday that he does not agree with Haaland on a variety of issues, including the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but was impressed by the strong endorsement by Alaska Rep. Don Young, a conservative Republican who is the longest-serving member of the House and has forged a strong working relationship with the liberal Haaland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a former governor, Manchin also said he knows how important it is for a president to have his \u201cteam on board\u201d in the Cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is long past time to give a Native American woman a seat at the Cabinet table,\u2019’ he said. Interior oversees the nation\u2019s public lands and waters and leads relations with nearly 600 federally recognized tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barrasso, who has led opposition to Haaland, said her hostility to fracking, the Keystone XL oil pipeline and other issues made her unfit to serve in a position in which she will oversee energy development on vast swaths of federal lands, mostly in the West, as well as offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barrasso said a moratorium imposed by Biden on oil and gas leases on federal lands \u201cis taking a sledgehammer to Western states\u2019 economies.\u201d The moratorium, which Haaland supports, could cost thousands of jobs in the West, Barrasso said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some Republican senators labeled Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., “radical” over her calls to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and address climate change, and said that could hurt rural America and major oil and gas-producing states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,15,68,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2924],"class_list":["post-13418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-leadership","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NX4YZZZSMZEUVE4DS2R6Q6TMCY","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/leadership\/2021\/03\/05\/senate-energy-panel-backs-haaland-for-interior-secretary\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n