Deb Haaland confirmed as Interior secretary with support from four Republican senators

Deb Haaland at her confirmation hearing 
(Photo by Leigh Vogel, Getty Images)

After a weeks-long confirmation process, on Monday the Senate confirmed U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., as President Biden's secretary of the Department of the Interior, marking the first time a Native American has held any cabinet-level position. Haaland, 60, is a registered member of the Laguna Pueblo Nation and in 2018 was one of the first Native American women elected to Congress.

Four Republican senators crossed the aisle to vote for Haaland in the 51-40 vote: Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska (the state with the highest proportion of Native Americans), Susan Collins of Maine (the most rural state), and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, reports Timothy Puko of The Wall Street Journal.

"Along with energy leases on federal land, Haaland will oversee the national parks and endangered-species protections. She will also lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a role that her supporters say will help reconcile long-troubled relations between Washington and America’s Indigenous peoples," Puko reports. Haaland's history of environmental activism and skeptical eye toward fracking triggered significant resistance from Republican senators during the confirmation process.

Presidential historian Heather Cox Richardson provides more context for Haaland's historic confirmation, including the Interior Department's history with Native Americans and energy.