U.S. Senate committee approves Marcia Fudge's nomination for HUD secretary.....The next step is possible confirmation by the full U.S. Senate...By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

 HUD secretary nominee congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge 

 Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Thursday approved the nomination of Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge to President Joe Biden's cabinet as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

The next step is a full vote by the U.S. Senate on possible confirmation

Fudge sat for her hearing by the committee on Jan 28 and faced few obstacles.

A few Republicans on the committee, including Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the leading Republican on the committee, voted against her confirmation, saying she has been overly critical of Republicans.

Also a former national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a prominent Black sorority for progressive women, Fudge chaired the Congressional Black Caucus during the 113th Congress after being unanimously elected by her colleagues.

A trained lawyer, she won a special election to Congress in 2008, replacing her friend, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who died suddenly of a brain aneurysm, and was reelected each election thereafter, the last time in November of 2020.

The largely Black congressional district she represents includes parts of Cleveland, mainly its majority Black east side, and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, and a largely Black pocket of neighboring Akron and staggering parts of Summit County.

The lawmaker and women's rights advocate endorsed Kamala Harris in her failed bid for the presidency that Biden ultimately won with Harris on his ticket as the Democratic candidate for vice president, and Biden subsequently tapped her for HUD secretary.

She has bipartisan support for the secretary post, including from both of Ohio's U.S. senators, Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, and Rob Portman, a Republican federal lawmaker out of Cincinnati.

Brown lives in Fudge's congressional district and is a Fudge ally, and was a co-chair of the hearing committee.

Brown said that Fudge's will lead the HUD agency to "a brighter future."

He said that Fudge will address corporate greed and interference that has plague HUD.

"The days of this committee doing the bidding of Wall Street are over," Brown said.

Portman said ahead of the committee hearing that Fudge is more than qualified to lead HUD.

"I don't always agree with Marcia on policy, she certainly does not always agree with me, but I can speak to her integrity, her commitment to justice and the strength of her character," said Portman.

In the past, HUD has had the most Black secretaries in American history with five, including Dr Ben Carson, a Republican who served under former president Donald Trump.

Coming in as president, Biden has nominated more women and more Blacks to his original cabinet than his six predecessors, including former president Barack Obama, the nations' first Black president, whom Biden served under as vice president from 2009-2017.

If confirmed, Fudge's 11th congressional seat in will be up for grabs with a special election scheduled by Gov Mike DeWine, a Republican, likely to be set as early as next month.

Former state Sen. Nina Turner, Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown, former state Sen. Shirley Smith, former state Rep. John Barnes Jr and former Cleveland city councilman Jeff Johnson have all launched campaigns in an effort to succeed Fudge.

All five of them are Black.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.