Senate confirms Carson, Perry for housing, energy posts,
WASHINGTON — Two of President Donald Trump’s former rivals for the GOP White House nomination won Senate confirmation Thursday to join his administration.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development on a 58-41 vote.
A few hours later, the Senate backed former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to be energy secretary, 62-37.
Afterward, both were sworn in at the White House by Vice President Mike Pence.
Mr. Carson and Mr. Perry are the 17th and 18th of Mr. Trump’s 22 Cabinet and Cabinet-level nominations to win Senate approval. Now, just two open seats remain — agriculture and labor — in his Cabinet.
Mr. Carson, 65, has never held public office and has no housing policy experience. Republicans have praised the life story of a man who grew up in inner-city Detroit with a single mother who had a third-grade education.
Mr. Carson, 65, will lead an agency with some 8,300 employees and a budget of about $47 billion. The department provides billions of dollars in housing assistance to low-income people through vouchers and public housing. It also enforces fair housing laws and offers mortgage insurance to poorer Americans through the Federal Housing Administration, part of HUD.
At his confirmation hearing, Mr. Carson told lawmakers that he envisioned forging a more “holistic approach” to helping people and developing “the whole person.”
Mr. Perry, who once pledged to eliminate the Energy Department, has repeatedly promised to be an advocate for the agency and to protect the nation’s nuclear stockpile. He also pledged to rely on federal scientists, including those who work on climate change. He has said he will seek to develop American energy in all forms, including oil, gas, nuclear power, wind and solar.
Mr. Perry, 66, told a Senate committee that he regrets his infamous statement about abolishing the department and insisted it performs critical functions, particularly in protecting and modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile. Democrats say they accept Mr. Perry’s disavowal of his 2011 pledge to abolish the department, but they worry he may not stand up to GOP proposals to slash the department’s budget.
On his first day on the job in Washington, the new Interior Department secretary, Ryan Zinke, arrived riding Tonto, an Irish sport horse. He has pledged he would devote more resources to national parks, boost the morale of department employees and bolster the sovereignty of American Indian tribes.
Also on Thursday, Indiana health care consultant Seema Verma, Mr. Trump’s nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid, won Finance Committee approval, clearing her for a final floor vote in the Senate.
At the same time, Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn’t the only Trump Cabinet official being pressed to explain omissions in congressional testimony at his confirmation hearing. Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, told Congress he never used personal email for government business. But it turns out he did.