Fudge faces difficult job at HUD courtesy of pandemic
WASHINGTON >> The Senate confirmed Marcia Fudge on Wednesday to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, placing the longtime Ohio lawmaker in charge of the agency just as Congress passed new benefits for renters and homeowners who have suffered economic losses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Fudge, who has represented parts of Cleveland and Akron in the House since 2008, is a former mayor and a longtime advocate for assistance for the needy. She said at her confirmation hearing in January that her first priority would be protecting the millions of people who have fallen behind on rent or mortgages due to loss of income during the pandemic, telling senators that “we cannot afford to allow people in the midst of a pandemic to be put in the streets.”
Shortly after she was confirmed — and minutes before she resigned — Fudge took the last vote of her House career in support of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, which would provide billions in housing assistance to low-income households.
Fudge won bipartisan support for her nomination, including from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said he would support her and attorney general nominee Judge Merrick Garland.
“These aren’t the nominees that any Republican would have picked for these jobs,” McConnell said ahead of the vote. “But the nation needs presidents to be able to stand up a team so long as their nominees are qualified and mainstream.”
Republicans who opposed Fudge’s nomination argued that she was also out of the mainstream. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey criticized some of Fudge’s past comments about Republicans, saying they could have a “toxic and detrimental impact on the working relationship that ought to be a constructive relationship” between Congress and the Biden administration.