(AP) The Senate on Thursday confirmed Dilawar Syed as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, ending more than two years of delays after a blockade by Republicans in the last Congress.
Syed will be the highest-ranking Muslim official in the U.S. government.
Republicans on the Small Business Committee had blocked his nomination, citing the agency’s payouts to abortion providers and other reasons. President Joe Biden had first nominated the Pakistani-born businessman to the position in March 2021, and he renominated him this year in the new Congress.
Syed was confirmed 54-42.
Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said ahead of the vote that the position of deputy administrator at the SBA has been vacant for nearly five years over two presidential administrations.
