The Senate on Thursday evening by voice vote confirmed Jane Holl Lute to become the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, the second most senior official at the department.
Lute is expected to be sworn in either today or tomorrow. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had said that she wanted Congress to move quickly on the Lute confirmation.
“Jane brings to the table a wealth of crisis-management and complex organizational leadership experience,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement on Friday. “She is a deep and strategic thinker, a tested and accomplished manager, and she knows how to get things done.”
Lute most recently was an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations in charge of support to peacekeeping operations. She is expected to help lead management reforms and oversee day-to-day operations at the Department of Homeland Security.