Senate confirms Biden pick Garland as attorney general
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted to confirm Merrick Garland on Wednesday to serve as attorney general, giving the former prosecutor and federal judge the task of leading the Justice Department at a time when the nation faces domestic extremist threats and a reckoning over civil rights.
Garland was confirmed 70-30, with 20 Republicans joining Democrats in supporting him. He is expected to be sworn in Thursday at the Justice Department.
Garland has vowed to restore public faith in a department embroiled in political controversy under former President Donald Trump, who sought both to undermine federal law enforcement when it scrutinized him and his associates and to wield its power to benefit him personally and politically.
At his confirmation hearing, Garland, 68, said that becoming attorney general would “be the culmination of a career I have dedicated to ensuring that the laws of our country are fairly and faithfully enforced and the rights of all Americans are protected.”
Garland has amassed decades of credentials in the law. He clerked for the Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr., worked for years as a federal prosecutor and led major investigations into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and others before being confirmed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1997.
After Antonin Scalia’s death, Garland was chosen by President Barack Obama in 2016 to join the high court only to see his nomination held up for eight months in an audacious political maneuver by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., majority leader at the time. The move ultimately allowed Trump to choose his own nominee to fill the seat.
But on Wednesday, McConnell cast a vote to confirm Garland, saying he did so because of “his long reputation as a straight shooter and a legal expert” and that his “left-of-center perspective” was still within the legal mainstream.
Department employees have said that Garland’s performance at his confirmation hearing, a largely amicable affair, made them hopeful that he would restore honor to the agency and lift up its 115,000-person workforce demoralized in the Trump era.
Restoring trust inside and outside the Justice Department will be key, as Garland will oversee politically charged investigations, including a federal tax fraud inquiry into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and a special counsel inquiry into the Russia investigation.
The department will also be involved in civil and criminal cases related to issues that have bitterly divided the country, including systemic racism, policing, LGBTQ rights and other civil liberties matters.
Garland will also confront the rise of domestic extremism as law enforcement officials continue investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Also Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development and North Carolina regulator Michael Regan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fudge will lead the housing agency just as Congress has passed new benefits for renters and homeowners who have suffered economic losses amid the pandemic.
Regan, who has served as North Carolina’s top environmental regulator since 2017, will help lead Biden’s efforts to address climate change and advocate for environmental justice, two of the administration’s top priorities. He is the first Black man to run the EPA.