President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, according to a person familiar with the decision, a historic pick that would make her the first Native American to lead the powerful federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation’s tribes for generations.
Congratulations to Deb Haaland. Seems like a good precedent to set. I am starting to worry about the House majority in the short term.
My Congresswoman Deb Haaland is an excellent pick for Interior and will make our great state of New Mexico and our country proud. It’s about time a Native American will be in charge of Native affairs as well as overseeing extractive industries that take place on Native lands along with all federal lands.
No need to worry about her House seat, it’s solid D.
Excellent choice. Both for Haaland’s own personal qualifications, and for the symbolic value of a Native American at the head of Interior.
We have to assume that by raiding our razor-thin House Majority to fill posts in the administration (Fudge of OH to HUD; Richmond of LA to the WH, and now Haaland of NM to Interior), Biden and Pelosi know what they’re doing. The first two are safe Dem seats; is the New Mexico seat also safe? House vacancies have to be filled by a new election, not by a governor making a temporary appointment, which is good because Ohio has a Republican governor. But how soon will these vacancies be filled? In the meantime, we’ll have to worry about other seats opening up because of death, illness, or scandal. We’d be in a hell of a mess if the Dems suddenly lost their House majority.
Halaand is a great appointment on the merits, and for the sake of getting a Native American into that position. But I worry about the implications.
Not worried about her House seat but the time from confirmation to the special election. House seats sit open during that time.
ETA: I see @jm917 beat me to it. 
This makes me happy. I became a fan after seeing her on MSNBC back in 2018 when she was elected to office. I don’t think she got nearly enough media attention.
Man, Biden is walking the walk, isn’t he? Awesome!
“They felt comfortable just launching into the issues they wanted,” Haaland told The Associated Press in an interview before her appointment. They would say, for example, “Oh, we don’t have to explain tribal sovereignty to you,” meaning tribes’ constitutionally guaranteed status as independent nations.
Tribal sovereignty is not guaranteed by the Constitution. It is governed by various treaties between the federal government and the tribes. Indian tribes are acknowledged to be separate entities once or twice in the Constitution, but there are no guarantees of independence in it.
Biden has violated one of my rules by picking 3 current MoCs for cabinet positions when we already have a sharply narrowed majority in the House. Haaland is fine, but we need good people in the House. There are others, including other Native American candidates, who can do the job.
Aye, there’s the rub. Will the Senate, if still controlled by Mitch slow walk this? She may not need to give up her seat for some time, if ever. In the meantime, Biden has done the right thing. If the Dems take the Senate, it’s a whole other ballgame and we have to trust that Nancy P. knows how to count votes.
Counterpoint: Haaland is the best pick for the position, she will remain a MOC when the organizing votes are taken at the beginning of the new Congress, and she will almost certainly be replaced by another Dem in the special election, given that Haaland just won re-election by 16 points.
If there is one thing Nancy knows how to do it’s count votes.
I think it’s a great move for Haaland and Nancy wouldn’t stand in the way unless she really had to.
It will either keep her caucus “bipartisan” (progressive vs. moderate) because they have no wiggle room to waste on either wing grandstanding or embolden them to bring the entire Democratic agenda down because they feel empowered to vote their ideology instead of being pragmatic. We will see.
Point of information:
“This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land;”
Article VI (copied from Cornell law school website)
As I read that, if a treaty specifies the nation is independent, that is “supreme law of the land”.
Whether that’s been interpreted similarly by SCOTUS over the years, well …
I don’t get your point, unless it is to say that it would be constitutional to take away tribal sovereignty.
ETA: Okay, your clarification is correct. Congress can, however, abrogate those treaties.
Her seat is quite safe NM-01 constitutes Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. Besides, it’s the only congressional district that looks like Wile E. Coyote in a box.
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, according to a person familiar with the decision, a historic pick that would make her the first Native American to lead the powerful federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation’s tribes for generations.
This is a BFD!!! BRAVO, Rep. Haaland! Good call, Biden! I suspect she will offer a never-before-imagined transformation of how the DOI operates! I’m looking forward to her leadership!
The Road Runner wins again.
Only won that district by 16. That’s not insurmountable in a special election setting.
OT: This will not appear on TPM or the national news, but:
On Thursday, December 17, 2020, the President signed into law:
H.R. 473, which authorizes the Every Word We Utter Monument to establish a commemorative work in the District of Columbia to commemorate the women’s suffrage movement and passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
Loveland, Colorado artist Jane DeDecker’s sculpture “Every Word We Utter,” features Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Ida B. Wells and Alice Paul.
“It is fitting to close this year — the centennial of women’s suffrage — with this strong declaration for the history and legacy of the women’s suffrage movement. Women deserve this commemoration, and the battles for equality that continue today deserve it, too,” DeDecker said in a statement.
And here is Rep. Haaland speaking in support of the monument.
