WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Thursday voted to move forward Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
After the 8-7 vote, Mullin’s nomination will head to the Senate floor.
Thursday’s vote comes a day after Mullin, a Republican, appeared before the committee in a contentious nomination hearing in which the GOP chair, Sen. Rand Paul, questioned whether Mullin should lead the department given his “anger issues.”
Paul, of Kentucky, voted against advancing Mullin’s nomination, the only Republican on the panel to oppose a fellow senator.
But because Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted with the rest of the Republicans, Mullin’s nomination advanced.
In a statement, Fetterman said his vote to approve Mullin was “rooted in a strong, committed, constructive working relationship with Senator Mullin for our nation’s security.”
Paul at the Wednesday hearing took issue with Mullin referring to him as a “freaking snake” and expressing sympathy for a neighbor who assaulted Paul in 2017, breaking six ribs and injuring a lung.
Mullin told senators in the hearing that he aims to lead DHS differently than Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the former South Dakota governor whom the president removed from the post earlier this month and reassigned to another position within the administration.
Mullin said he would do away with several policies that Noem implemented, such as a requirement for disaster grants to be personally approved by the secretary of Homeland Security.
He added that he wants DHS to “not be in the news every day,” referencing the aggressive enforcement tactics by immigration agents that have been caught on camera, including their involvement in the deaths of two Minneapolis residents.
Mullin will likely leave his Senate seat after he votes for his own nomination to lead DHS. It’s similar to a move by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last year, when he left his U.S. Senate seat representing Florida after voting to confirm his nomination to lead the State Department.
The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, said Thursday that DHS “needs a leader who can restore the trust that DHS has broken with the American people,” and that he did not have confidence that Mullin could tackle that challenge.
Peters, like Paul, raised concerns about Mullin’s “temperament to lead this critical department.”
”There will be no shortage of political disagreements facing the new DHS secretary,” Peters said. “The department and the American people deserve a leader who is steady and proven under pressure, not just someone better than the very low bar set by his predecessor.”
