Biden pick for Interior Secretary likely to face rocky confirmation hearing

U.S. Senate Republicans might use this week’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Interior nominee Rep. Debra Haaland to air their grievances about the Biden administration’s energy policies, at the risk of alienating Native Americans in Western states.

GOP Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Steve Daines of Montana sit on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which will hold the Tuesday hearing. Both have already raised objections that Haaland holds “radical” views. Daines vowed to block her progress in the Senate unless she addresses several issues that concern him.

If confirmed, Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat, would be the first Native American person to hold a Cabinet position, a significant symbolic step for the federal department charged with overseeing most federal-tribal relations. She is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna.

But her confirmation already is running behind; the timing of the hearing means Haaland likely won’t get a vote on the floor of the Senate until sometime in mid-March at the earliest. That timeline would make Haaland’s start date the latest in modern history for a president’s first Interior secretary.

Because of the historic nature of Haaland’s nomination, the GOP criticism of her also has already irked representatives of Native American people, especially coming from senators like Daines whose states have significant Native American populations.

At 6.3%, Montana has the fifth-highest state share of its population who identify as only American Indian or Alaska Native, according to census data.

Tom Rodgers, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana and acting president of the Global Indigenous Council, acknowledged that Daines disagrees with Haaland on oil and gas policy, but said the senator should have at least given Haaland the courtesy of being heard at a public hearing before voicing such strong opposition.

“I don’t think that the senator wants to go where he’s going,” Rodgers said in an interview. “This is a woman who has achieved an incredible record to date. She deserves respect … She’s entitled to be heard, and she’s entitled to be heard before such harsh judgments are made. And given the significant Native American population Sen. Daines represents in Montana, he knows that.”

Aides to Daines did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Roughly 1.6% of North Carolinians identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to 2019 census estimates.

Global warming, energy goals

Haaland will likely field questions on the administration’s energy goals, its plans to address global warming and her relationship with Native American communities.

President Joe Biden’s early moves on energy and environmental policy — including scrapping the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, freezing new leases for oil and gas development on federal lands and pledging to protect 30% of U.S. land and water by 2030 — have made Haaland a target for Republican members who disagree with the administration’s actions.

Bret Hartl, the head of government affairs at the liberal environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, predicted that Republicans will make Haaland’s hearing “a surrogate fight” in a broader disagreement over environmental policy, including the administration’s oil and gas leasing pause, pipeline withdrawal and aggressive conservation goals.

“They’re trying to blame her for a policy they don’t agree with,” Hartl said. “No one will raise a fact that she is not well-qualified and an excellent choice.”

North Carolina officials fought the Interior Department during the Trump administration over offshore drilling. Both Gov. Roy Cooper and then-DEQ Secretary Michael Regan had contested the department’s approval of seismic testing permits that would have occurred in an area known as “The Point,” one of the most aquatically diverse areas in the world. It lies 38 miles from Manteo and 45 miles from Rodanthe and is home to 60 species of whales, including the endangered Right Whale, and dolphins.

The Interior Department is over several other bureaus, including the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, both of which have significant interest in North Carolina.

North Carolina’s 10 national parks, two federally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, as well as National Heritage sites and scenic trails, generate more than $2 billion in economic benefit to the state. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been embroiled in a lawsuit in North Carolina over the fate of the endangered red wolf, which lives only in two counties in the eastern part of the state. 

Haaland’s allies praise her familiarity with many of the issues Interior handles, including tribal relations, and conservation as the head of the House subcommittee overseeing public lands.

“She’s perfectly aligned to have a good working coalition,” said Taylor Patterson, the executive director of Native Voters Alliance Nevada.

As a House member, Haaland was an original co-sponsor of the climate change legislation known as the Green New Deal and has said she’ll work to “keep fossil fuels in the ground.”

With that background and Biden’s actions, Republican senators with pro-fossil fuel records have weighed in early.

Barrasso, the top Republican on Senate Energy, said he wouldn’t support Haaland’s nomination unless she rejected “policies that will force energy workers into the unemployment line.”

“Representative Haaland’s radical views are squarely at odds with the responsible management of our nation’s energy resources,” he said through a spokesman. “Her vocal opposition to oil and gas production on federal lands will only encourage President Biden along the illegal and reckless path that he has begun.”

Daines said after a private meeting with Haaland earlier this month he would block her confirmation unless she addressed several concerns he had, potentially stretching out the process and forcing procedural votes in advance of the final confirmation vote. She’s still likely to prevail, since her confirmation needs only a simple majority in a Senate split 50-50 with tie-breaking votes cast by Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I’m deeply concerned with the Congresswoman’s support on several radical issues that will hurt Montana, our way of life, our jobs and rural America, including her support for the Green New Deal and President Biden’s oil and gas moratorium, as well as her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline,” Daines said in a Feb. 5 statement.

Native Americans have pushed back.

The Montana Legislature’s American Indian Caucus wrote Daines and U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana, also a Republican, to say their opposition was “deeply offensive.”

Rosendale joined a letter with other House Republicans that called Haaland “a direct threat to working men and women and a rejection of responsible development of America’s natural resources.”

The Montana-based Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council produced an ad that said the only “radical” thing about Haaland’s nomination is that it took nearly 250 years to happen.

While Native American representation at Interior is important, Rodgers, Patterson and others said they were confident in Haaland’s qualifications without regard to her racial background.

Slow pace on confirmations

While Haaland’s confirmation vote has lagged, other Biden nominees have been moving slowly, too, in part due to the Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. The Senate still has not confirmed Energy Secretary-designate Jennifer Granholm, though Senate Energy questioned her Jan. 27.

The Senate didn’t confirm Ryan Zinke, Trump’s first Interior secretary, until March 1, 2017. But Senate confirmations of Interior secretaries have typically been routine and speedy. Other than Trump, every president since Woodrow Wilson had his choice for Interior secretary confirmed within two weeks of inauguration.

Even Zinke was at least further along in the process than Haaland is now at an equivalent time in Trump’s term. The Senate Energy Committee held confirmation hearings for the then-House member from Montana on Jan. 17, 2017, three days before Trump’s inauguration.

Former officials and activists told States Newsroom that the delay is not ideal, but is still brief enough to have little real-world effect.

Native American communities in Nevada are focused on getting resources for COVID-19 relief, and haven’t really noticed problems with Interior or its agencies, Patterson said.

Capable career staff are keeping things running as they prepare for a secretary’s arrival, Hartl said.

Still, some important work, including picking top deputies and other key decision-makers, can’t happen until Haaland takes office.

“It’s important to have top leadership in place as soon as possible so that the president’s Cabinet can work together implementing the new administration’s agenda,” said Bob Abbey, a former director of the Bureau of Land Management under President Barack Obama.

An Interior Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Meanwhile, in Congress, Colorado Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse, who joined the House the same year as Haaland, will take over her chairmanship of the House Natural Resources subcommittee that oversees public lands and national parks.

Jacob Fischler helps cover Washington for the States Newsroom network, of which NC Policy Watch is a member. Additional North Carolina reporting by Lisa Sorg.