Republicans throw a tantrum over Biden nominee Deb Haaland
It should come as absolutely no surprise that Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) and 13 other Congressional Republicans have sent a letter to the White House flatly demanding that the Biden administration immediately rescind the nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland, a Native American member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, for Secretary of the Interior as a “job killer”.
Stauber is angry at Haaland’s support for a ban on mining leases on federal lands and the Obama administration proposing such a ban as well that Donald Trump overturned. President Biden has proposed a one year moratorium on mining leases on federal lands as a part of his bold new clean energy agenda. Stauber has a personal stake in this in his “Saving American Mines Act”, H.R. 488, that requires Congress to approve all mineral withdrawals on federal lands.
Now five Native tribes in Stauber’s Congressional district are reacting angrily to this attempt to stop one of their own from becoming Secretary of the Interior, the Mille Lacs band of the Ojibwe, the Bois Forte band of the Chippewa, Fond Du Lac band of the Lake Superior Chippewa, the Grand Portage band of the Lake Superior Chippewa and the Leech Lake band of the Ojibwe. They and other Native American tribes in the region have labeled this attempt to stop one of their own from a crucial Cabinet position that profoundly affects them as “offensive”, “hostile” and “irresponsible”.
While Republican objections to Haaland’s nomination are growing, and while it might mean being able to stall it briefly, with Democrats in control of the Senate, there isn’t much that Republicans can do to completely derail this very important Cabinet confirmation.
