By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate committee voted on Thursday to advance the nomination of Senator Markwayne Mullin to become homeland security secretary, even as the committee’s Republican chairman criticized Mullin and voted against him.
The 8-7 vote sends President Donald Trump’s homeland pick to the Republican-controlled full Senate for a vote, where Mullin will need a majority to be confirmed. The committee vote was mostly along party lines, except for Republican Chairman Rand Paul, who voted against Mullin, and Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who voted in support.
Trump fired embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this month after she was criticized by Republican lawmakers over her handling of Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown and management of the 260,000-person department.
The Republican president nominated Mullin, a businessman who spent a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming a senator in 2023, to take over the role.
During a confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Paul criticized Mullin for making violent statements, including showing support for a man who attacked Paul in 2017.
Fetterman, a moderate from Pennsylvania who previously said he would vote for Mullin, praised him during Wednesday’s hearing for his approach to border security and immigration enforcement. Fetterman’s backing proved crucial to advancing the nomination.
Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s top Democrat, criticized what he called Mullin’s willingness to condone political violence. Peters cited a 2023 incident where Mullin – then a freshman senator – challenged Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to a fight during a Senate hearing.
“There will be no shortage of political disagreements facing the next 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. I’ll be voting no.”
If confirmed, Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, would be the second Native American to serve as a cabinet member. His nomination could head to the full Senate as soon as next week, a Republican leadership aide said.
MULLIN SIGNALS SOME DIFFERENCES WITH NOEM
Trump surged federal agents into U.S. cities beginning in mid-2025 to make immigration arrests, with major operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, where masked officers employing militaristic tactics led to legal challenges and public criticism.
Support for Trump’s immigration approach decreased as agents clashed with city residents and fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Reuters/Ipsos polls show.
Mullin signaled at the hearing on Wednesday that he would approach some issues differently than Noem.
The Trump administration issued an internal policy last year that told federal immigration officers they could enter private homes without a judicial warrant, a policy Democrats and civil rights groups oppose.
Mullin said under his leadership, officials would need a judicial warrant to enter a home or business unless they were pursuing someone into the building.
He said he would revoke a Noem policy that required her to personally approve any DHS contracts over $100,000, which led to criticism that it had delayed disaster recovery grants.
“That’s called micromanaging,” Mullin said. “I don’t know if the secretary put that in or someone else did. I’m not a micromanager.”
Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, said significant and lasting reforms were needed to put guardrails on Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“The trust is gone, and not just with Democrats,” she told Mullin on Wednesday. “That’s why we’re here. That’s why your predecessor was fired. And there needs to be fundamental reform.”
NOEM FAREWELL PARTY, PLANS FOR ECUADOR TRAVEL
Democrats have blocked federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security since mid-February, saying they will not approve the money unless the Trump administration scales back immigration enforcement.
While Democrats welcomed Noem’s departure, they have signaled they want lasting reforms rather than new personnel running DHS. Mullin generally has been aligned with Trump’s immigration enforcement stance and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller remains the driving force behind Trump’s restrictive agenda.
Due to the security-focused nature of the DHS mission, many employees have continued to work without paychecks while the funding has been stalled. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Thursday that if a partial government shutdown continues, small airports could soon shut down as 50,000 airport security officers go without pay.
Hours after Mullin was approved by the Senate panel, Noem was set to have a farewell party at DHS headquarters with food trucks on site, according to an invitation reviewed by Reuters.
Noem, who was appointed special envoy to a new Trump security initiative in the Western Hemisphere called Shield of the Americas, is planning to travel to Ecuador for the effort next week, a Trump official said, requesting anonymity to discuss the trip.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Morgan; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Rod Nickel and Nick Zieminski)
