The hearing will be the first opportunity for lawmakers and the public to hear directly from Mullin about how he intends to run the third-largest department in the Cabinet. Mullin, an Oklahoma senator, has spent 13 years in Congress and has emerged as a close ally of the president.
The Department of Homeland Security is a sprawling agency, with a workforce of roughly 260,000 employees that oversees a diverse mission set of responsibilities ranging from protecting the president from a bullet to helping states recover from disasters to deporting people in the country illegally.
Mullin is a former mixed martial arts fighter who ran a plumbing business in Oklahoma before running for Congress. He has in the past indicated support for immigration operations, and he's expected to be a faithful ally for Trump's agenda if he is confirmed for the top job at DHS.
“Whether it be protecting the homeland from bad actors, stopping dangerous drugs from flowing into American communities, or removing the worst-of-the-worst criminal illegal aliens, Senator Mullin will work tirelessly to implement the President’s agenda,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an emailed statement Tuesday.
