Mullin Confirmed as DHS Secretary Amid Negotiations on Homeland Security Funding

Senator Markwayne Mullin is expected to take office as the new secretary of homeland security on Tuesday after being confirmed by his colleagues late Monday night. He has promised to take a “better approach” to the president’s deportation campaign. Mr. Mullin’s confirmation comes at the same time that Republican senators are trying to close a death on funding for the department he is about to lead. Following a meeting with President Trump at the White House on Monday, GOP senators expressed confidence that a deal is just over the horizon. Senator Katie Britt, the Republican who leads the subcommittee which writes the DHS budget, told reporters that she believes senators have reached a deal. Mr. Trump is also on board, according to Ms. Britt. “We do,” she said when asked if lawmakers and the president had settled on a proposal. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A compromise that has been pitched by senators in recent days would include funding for nearly all of DHS, except for some deportation operations. If that deal is finalized, agencies like TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard could be reopened by the end of the week, meaning federal employees would not miss another paycheck. Over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he was going to lose even more TSA agents if they did not receive this coming paycheck. “They’re gonna take other jobs to put food on the table and pay their rent, so I do think it’s gonna get much worse,” Mr. Duffy told ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday. Mr. Mullin has been eager to negotiate with Democrats in order to reopen the government, going so far as to embrace the use of judicial warrants for deportation operations — something the White House has strongly objected to. One of the two Democratic senators to vote for Mr. Mullin’s confirmation on Monday, Senator Martin Heinrich, said he was supporting his “friend” because he believed he would be a straight shooter who would not take orders from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. “We have a very honest and constructive working relationship,” Mr. Heinrich said in a statement on Sunday. “I have also seen first-hand that Markwayne is not someone who can simply be bullied into changing his views, and I look forward to having a Secretary who doesn’t take their orders from Stephen Miller.”The other Democrat to vote for Mr. Mullin was Senator John Fetterman, who also considers the new DHS secretary a friend. One Republican, Senator Rand Paul, voted no on Monday, citing Mr. Mullin’s “anger issues.”

Mullin Confirmed as DHS Secretary Amid Negotiations on Homeland Security Funding

Mullin Confirmed as DHS Secretary Amid Negotiations on Homeland Security Funding

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