Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Monday he hopes to hold a confirmation hearing next week for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), President Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“We’re shooting for a week from Wednesday,” Paul told reporters as he stepped into a car, according to video captured by CBS News’s Grace Kazarian.
Trump tapped Mullin, a first-term senator from Oklahoma, to replace Kristi Noem as DHS secretary last Thursday. Noem, who will take on a new role within the administration on targeting drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, was under fire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for her department’s immigration enforcement tactics and the bottleneck of disaster relief funding, among other concerns.
Republican senators have praised Mullin, a member of the Appropriations, Armed Services, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Indian Affairs committees.
“He’s the sort of person who knows what he doesn’t know. That was the problem with Noem. She couldn’t scale her experience, and I think he can. He’s a man of his word,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a fierce critic of Noem who called for her ouster.
“There’s nothing that’s too big for him to tackle,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a member of the Appropriations Committee. “He’s built solid relationships with people on both sides of the aisle. He’s going to keep his word. He’s loyal, and he’s straight-forward and pragmatic in his approach.”
Senate Democrats, though, have mostly been reluctant to support Mullin’s nomination — with some noting that their issues with immigration enforcement tactics do not end with Noem’s departure.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, told Bloomberg last week that Mullin will have to outline “his vision on how to fix what’s really wrong in Homeland Security” during the confirmation process.
One Democratic member of the committee, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), has already vowed to back Mullin’s nomination.
Mullin’s confirmation hearing will also come over a month after he sharply criticized Paul, the chair. Speaking to the McGrath Breakfast Group in February, the Oklahoma senator called his libertarian colleague from Kentucky a “freaking snake” for often breaking, according to Oklahoma journalist David Arnett.
