WAS SHINGTON – Ohio Representative Marcia L. Fujian was confirmed Wednesday as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, becoming the first black woman in decades to run an agency that will be at the forefront of the Biden administration’s efforts to combat racial inequality. And poverty.
The Democratic member of Congress representing the Cleveland area and former mayor of Wernernsville Heights in Ohio, Ms. Luz, won the support of all Senate Democrats and many top Republicans, including minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The final vote was 66 to 34.
For a momentary moment on Wednesday, her two jobs, in two branches, overlapped: Ms. Fuj voted by proxy in favor of the administration’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus bill.
Mr. Fuj was confirmed last month by a 17 to 7 vote by the Senate Banking Committee, with two key Republicans – Tim Scott of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio – endorsing his nomination despite irregularities on his progressive agenda.
In a statement after the vote, Mr. Portman praised Ms. Fudge for “compassionately addressing poverty and lack of access and affordable housing,” adding, “It will make Ohio proud. “
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Ms. Fuji’s confirmation is a proud day for Congress and the country.
Ms. 68 years. The lodge inherits the agency with big plans and big problems.
His predecessor, Ben Carson, oversees the migration of career workers, affects the implementation of fair housing and has done little to alleviate the nationwide crisis in affordable housing due to the economic collapse from the coronavirus epidemic.
Mr. Carson, a former surgeon with no prior housing experience, did “stupid things” in the department, Mr. Fuj said in an interview with The Plane Dealer in December.
If the agency President Donald J. Had Trump not been at the forefront of policy initiatives, it would have become the focal point of his political message. He attacked Obama-era efforts to remove local zoning rules that discriminate against black people and other groups that face bias in the proud pitch of the white suburban area. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
President Biden and Mrs. Luge have suggested that they move forward with the program.
Ms. Luje said she will use her time at HUD for long-term issues such as racism, the crisis of affordability in big cities and homelessness. But its immediate priority is preventing evacuees from causing income losses during the epidemic.
The administration’s relief package includes .5 21.55 billion for emergency rent assistance, 5 5 billion for emergency housing vouchers, 5 5 billion for homeless assistance and 8 50,850 million for tribal and rural housing.
In the past, Ms. Fuj, who is black, has complained that the top spot in HUD is always used to misrepresent diversity rather than run policy.
“You know, it’s always been ‘we want to put a black man in Labor or HUD,'” he told Politico after last year’s election.
He added, “When you look at what African-American women in particular did in this election, you will see that a big part of the reason this Biden-Harris team won was because of African-American women.”
HUD, in fact, was not Mrs. Fudge’s first choice.
After Mr. Biden was elected, he lobbied publicly to lead an agency called the Secretary of Agriculture, which oversees food relief initiatives as well as farm subsidy programs. But that job was given to Mr. Biden’s colleague Tom Wilsack. Ms. Faz added a surprising end to the list of presidential nominees, endorsing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was an early favorite to lead HUD.
