The U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee voted Thursday to advance Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to serve as the next Homeland Security secretary, following a tense exchange with committee Chair Rand Paul during Wednesday’s confirmation hearing.
The vote—eight senators in favor and seven opposed—largely fell along party lines, with one notable shift. Paul, a Kentucky Republican, voted against advancing Mullin’s nomination, as he had pledged the day before.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Paul pressed Mullin over past disparaging remarks directed at him and questioned the nature of the “special missions” Mullin said he undertook while serving in the House.
Mullin’s nomination now moves to the full Senate for consideration.
If confirmed, the Oklahoma senator and tribal citizen of the Cherokee Nation will resign his Senate seat and be sworn in as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. He would become the second Native American to serve in a presidential Cabinet in a secretarial role. Deb Haaland, currently a gubernatorial candidate in New Mexico, was the first when she served as secretary of the Interior in the Biden administration.
