US Senate confirms Biden's pick Garland as A-G
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WASHINGTON • The United States Senate confirmed Mr Merrick Garland as President Joe Biden's attorney-general, five years after the veteran judge was controversially denied a Supreme Court seat.
The Senate voted 70 to 30 on Wednesday to confirm the appeals court judge for the top Justice Department post.
In his confirmation hearing, Mr Garland said fighting domestic extremism would be his "first priority" if confirmed as attorney-general.
After supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Jan 6, Mr Garland said far-right extremism today was worse than when he investigated the 1995 bombing of a building in Oklahoma City that left 168 dead.
He also pledged to keep the department free of politics after alleged repeated interference by Mr Trump.
He said an urgent task of the department was to ensure equal justice for minorities and people of colour, in an apparent reference to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Senate also confirmed Mr Biden's pick for secretary of housing and urban development.
Ms Marcia Fudge, a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio, will be the first black woman to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development in more than 40 years.
Mr Michael Regan was also voted by the Senate as the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, which will play a central role in the Biden administration's plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, vehicles, and oil and gas facilities.
He will take the helm of the agency as it rebuilds after the Trump era, which had been focused on undoing Obama-era regulations on industry, and slashing the agency's budget and staff.
At his confirmation hearing, he stressed that he will work with all states to ensure that their concerns about the transition to cleaner energy are heard.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
