Washington, March 24 – The US Senate has confirmed Senator Markwayne Mullin's nomination for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), replacing the controversial Kristi Noem, amid the department's ongoing shutdown.
The upper chamber voted 54-45 to approve the 48-year-old Mullin, who has served in the Senate since 2023, following a decade in the House representing the state of Oklahoma. One Republican senator voted against the nomination, while two Democrats supported it.
Mullin's nomination, announced by President Donald Trump on March 5, came amid growing bipartisan frustration with Noem's leadership and marked the first Cabinet shakeup of Trump's second term, according to Xinhua news agency.
Noem has been under pressure from both sides after federal law enforcement officers fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis in January, further angering Trump with her performance at congressional hearings earlier this month, when senators from both parties questioned her about a $200 million advertising campaign, among other issues.
The fatal shootings of two US citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis in January have prompted Democrats to seek changes in how immigration agencies operate.
Disagreement over immigration enforcement regulations led to a deadlock in Congress, as Democrats requested that funding for DHS be removed from an omnibus funding package, resulting in a brief partial shutdown from January 31 to February 3.
Congress then passed a funding package, which funded multiple US federal agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year, but DHS only received a two-week continuing resolution at current funding levels, allowing both parties and the White House to continue negotiations.
Over the past few weeks, negotiations between the two parties on immigration enforcement have shown little progress.
The Senate rejected the DHS funding bill for the fifth time on Friday, leaving the department's operations, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in disarray.
