WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday, becoming the first black woman in decades to head an agency that will be at the forefront of the Biden government’s efforts. to combat racial inequality and poverty.
Mrs. Fudge, a Democratic member of Congress who represents the Cleveland area and former mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, has won the support of all Senate Democrats and many important Republicans, including that of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader. The final vote was 66 to 34.
For a brief moment on Wednesday, his two jobs, in two branches, overlapped: Fudge voted by proxy in favor of the government’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus project.
Ms. Fudge was confirmed last month by the Senate Banking Committee by a 17 to 7 vote, with two major Republicans – Tim Scott of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio – supporting her nomination despite her doubts about her agenda progressive.
In a statement after the vote, Mr. Portman praised Ms. Fudge for handling “issues of poverty and homelessness affordable and accessible with compassion”, adding, “She will make Ohio proud”.
Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said that Fudge’s confirmation was a “proud day for Congress and the country”.
Mrs. Fudge, 68, inherits an agency with big plans and big problems.
His predecessor, Ben Carson, oversaw an exodus of career personnel, destroyed inspection for fair housing and did little to resolve a national housing crisis exacerbated by the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Carson, a former surgeon with no previous housing experience, did “silly things” in the department, Fudge said in an interview with The Plain Dealer in December.
If the agency was not at the forefront of President Donald J. Trump’s political initiatives, it would become a focal point of its political message. He attacked an Obama-era effort to eliminate local zoning regulations that discriminated against blacks and other groups that faced prejudice, in a blatant speech to suburban whites. Supporters of the program criticized Trump’s actions as racist.
President Biden and Mrs. Fudge suggested that they go ahead with the program.
Ms. Fudge said she would use her time at the HUD to address long-term issues such as racism, accessibility crisis in big cities and homelessness. But his immediate priority is to prevent evictions caused by loss of income during the pandemic.
The government’s aid package includes $ 21.55 billion for emergency rental assistance, $ 5 billion for emergency housing vouchers, $ 5 billion for assistance for the homeless and $ 850 million for tribal and rural housing.
In the past, Ms. Fudge, who is black, has complained that the top position in the HUD was often used to project a false impression of diversity instead of directing policies.
“You know, it’s always ‘we want to put black people in work or at HUD’,” she told Politico shortly after last year’s election.
“When you look at what African American women did in this particular election, you will see that most of the reason this Biden-Harris team won was because of African American women,” she added.
The HUD was not, in fact, Mrs. Fudge’s first choice.
After Biden was elected, she publicly lobbied to be appointed secretary of agriculture to lead an agency that oversees food aid initiatives, as well as agricultural subsidy programs. But that job was offered to Biden’s ally Tom Vilsack. Ms. Fudge was a surprise at the end of the president’s list of nominees, supplanting mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, who had been one of the first favorites to lead the HUD.