Senate confirms Marcia Fudge to lead Department of Housing and Urban Development
10 March 2021
The Senate on Wednesday voted 66-34 to confirm Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Why it matters: President Biden pledged while running in 2020 to improve fair housing practices, end redlining and increase the supply of high-quality affordable homes. Fudge will now spearhead those efforts by the administration.
- Fudge will inherit a rent-backlog crisis, with eviction moratoriums during the COVID-19 pandemic prompting millions of tenants to forgo paying their landlords while accumulating massive back-rent bills.
- Housing policy is also likely to intersect with green energy and infrastructure initiatives, which are both priorities for Biden.
The big picture: Fudge, 68, has served in the House since 2008 and is the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She was originally gunning to be Biden's secretary of agriculture — but that nomination ultimately went to former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.
- The congresswoman supported now-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2020 Democratic primaries, but ultimately endorsed Biden in the general election.
- The former co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sander's presidential campaign, Nina Turner, is among those running in the special election to fill Fudge's seat in Ohio's heavily Democratic 11th congressional district.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.