Senate Advances Mullin’s Dhs Nomination

Sen. Markwayne Mullin is officially on a glidepath for confirmation to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Senators voted 54-37 to advance the Oklahoma Republican’s nomination, setting up a final vote as soon as Monday. Democratic Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.) and Martin Heinrich (N.M.) voted to advance the nomination.

It’s a lightning quick process by Senate standards. Mullin’s nomination was sent to the Senate roughly two weeks ago and he advanced late last week out of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee despite sparring with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who leads the panel.

Paul used the start of the hearing to criticize Mullin for previously calling him a “snake” and for saying he understood why one of his neighbors attacked Paul in 2017. But GOP leaders quickly said they still expected Mullin to be confirmed and some GOP senators privately kvetched about a personal animosity between the two men overshadowing the hearing.

Mullin, who joined the Senate in 2023 after serving for several years in the House, was tapped to succeed Kristi Noem as DHS secretary following a wave of public criticism, including from some GOP lawmakers. Trump also faced private lobbying by senior administration officials for Trump to remove her from her position.

During his committee hearing, Mullin suggested that he would be making some policy changes but that he also wanted a tonal shift within the department. Though he didn’t directly criticize Noem, he told his fellow senators: “My goal at six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day.”

Mullin will take over the department while it's in the midst of a weeks-long shutdown after congressional Democrats refused to pass a DHS funding bill unless it includes immigration enforcement changes in the wake of federal agents killing two people in Minneapolis.

Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, met late last week with a bipartisan group of senators in an effort to break the impasse, including some of the same Democrats who helped negotiate an end to last year’s shutdown.