Washington – Senate is expected to confirm Judge Merrick Garland as attorney general on Wednesday, five years after he failed to qualify as a candidate for former President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court.
Garland’s appointment is expected to be approved with bipartisan support. The Senate Judicial Committee last week suggested his appointment with a vote of 15 to 7, with four Republicans joining each Democrat to support Garland. Even Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who was instrumental in preventing Garland from receiving confirmation hearings in 2016, has said he will support Garland’s nomination
Garland, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, will take the reins from the Department of Justice as federal prosecutors across the country prosecute hundreds of cases against those involved in the January 6 Capitol riots.
During his confirmation hearings Last month, Garland also pledged to depoliticise the Justice Department. Under former President Donald Trump, the department became embroiled in political scandals involving Mr. Trump’s closest allies, leading the president to accuse the department of being biased against him. Democrats accused former Attorney General William Barr of acting as the president’s personal attorney in his handling of those cases.
Garland promised that as attorney general he would act in the interests of the American people, and promised to oppose attempts to make prosecutions or investigations biased or political.
“I’m not the president’s attorney. I am the United States attorney, ”he said.
Garland was nominated by Obama to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Judge Antonin Scalia in February 2016, but Republicans blocked him from consideration, arguing that the seat should not be occupied during an election year. The chair was later taken by Judge Neil Gorsuch, Mr Trump’s candidate. The Republican-controlled Senate later confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett in court just days before the 2020 presidential election.
The Senate will also vote in confirmation on Wednesday Congressman Marcia Fudge as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fudge, a former president of the Congressional Black Caucus, will be the second black woman to run the department. Patricia Roberts Harris held the job under Jimmy Carter and became the first black woman to join the cabinet.
Fudge said during her hearings that she wanted to review the country’s housing policy and focus on providing more housing for the most vulnerable. She was confirmed by a vote of 66 to 34.