{"id":22781,"date":"2026-05-15T17:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mullin-has-more-work-to-do-to-repair-the-relationship-between-dhs-and-congress\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:02:08","slug":"mullin-has-more-work-to-do-to-repair-the-relationship-between-dhs-and-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mullin-has-more-work-to-do-to-repair-the-relationship-between-dhs-and-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Mullin has more work to do to repair the relationship between DHS and Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has taken some steps to improve his department\u2019s relationship with Capitol Hill. Lawmakers in both parties, however, say there\u2019s much more to be done before the damage from his predecessor\u2019s tenure is repaired.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans, largely adulatory of Mullin\u2019s early efforts to change course at the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledge that the poor relationship between DHS and its Senate committee of jurisdiction is limiting productive engagement.<\/p>\n

Tensions still exist between Mullin and the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Rand Paul<\/a> (R-Ky.), who has lashed the Homeland Security secretary for not having what he considers the proper temperament for the role. The enmity between the two men burst out in public view during Mullin\u2019s March confirmation hearing, when Paul upbraided Mullin for disparaging comments Mullin had made about a violent 2017 attack against the Kentucky Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be a good relationship between the secretary of Homeland Security and the chairman of the committee,\u201d Sen. Rick Scott<\/a> (R-Fla.) said. Declining to say if any members are working to smooth over the relationship between the two, Scott emphasized: \u201cI think it\u2019s important they figure out how to have a positive human relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul declined to comment on his relationship with Mullin. While Paul was also a critic of former Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s heavy-handed approach to deportations, his frustrations with Noem did not appear as personal.<\/p>\n

The White House has also been slow to embrace Mullin as its go-to representative on Blue Light News for DHS matters. As funding legislation snaked its way through Congress in March and April, the White House mainly dispatched border czar Tom Homan to talk to lawmakers, casting Mullin into a less direct role in the push to end the monthslong shutdown of his department.<\/p>\n

That omission is all the more striking given that Mullin, who represented Oklahoma in both the House and Senate, was hailed as a Capitol Hill dealmaker when he was nominated. Mullin had also vowed to be accessible and very communicative with Congress during his confirmation hearing. Early reports had also suggested<\/a> he was trying to play a role during his confirmation process as a broker for a funding deal.<\/p>\n

Many of those dynamics will be on sharp display this month when Mullin returns to testify before the House Appropriations Committee, his first public appearance before his former colleagues since he entered the Cabinet. His testimony at an oversight hearing, which has been postponed after it was initially scheduled for Monday, will give lawmakers their first chance to publicly press Mullin on his efforts at the department.<\/p>\n

DHS said in a statement that \u201cwhile serving in his new role as DHS Secretary, he\u2019s continuing this leadership style and is in constant communication with leaders on Capitol Hill, his 22 agency heads, and the White House to deliver on President Trump\u2019s promise to protect the homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department added that \u201cthe secretary\u2019s number one priority was re-opening DHS and getting the patriots who protect our homeland paid. His relationships with his former colleagues \u2014 on both sides of the aisle \u2014 were critical to getting DHS re-opened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullin is making inroads on Blue Light News. He and White House deputy chief of staff James Braid met with members of the Republican Governance Group on Wednesday, signaling Mullin may play a larger role in the unfolding effort to secure funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection via a to-be-negotiated reconciliation bill.<\/p>\n

One bright spot has been the House, where Mullin\u2019s relationship with Republican lawmakers is uniformly better. House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino<\/a> (R-N.Y.) said Mullin has briefed his committee since taking office. And both Garbarino and Rep. Mark Amodei<\/a> (R-Nev.), the top House appropriator on the subcommittee that funds DHS, said communication from DHS has improved under Mullin\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have an open line of communication,\u201d Garbarino said. \u201cDealing with his team has been very good, and I think the information coming out of HQ is not as siloed as it was previously.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Democrats still have many concerns about DHS and Mullin, at a time when slim margins in the House and Senate have made potential Democratic support useful in sticky legislative battles.<\/p>\n

Sen. Gary Peters<\/a> (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he\u2019s met with Mullin since his former colleague\u2019s confirmation as DHS secretary. But when asked about Mullin\u2019s leadership of DHS, he demurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve still got to wait and see,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n

There were high hopes from Republicans going into Mullin\u2019s confirmation that he would repair what many saw as an unproductive relationship between DHS and Capitol Hill. Senators identified his predecessor\u2019s rough relationship with Capitol Hill as one of the reasons for her downfall.<\/p>\n

Noem \u201cwasn\u2019t as engaged with senators as some of her Cabinet colleagues,\u201d Sen. Cynthia Lummis<\/a> (R-Wyo.) said. \u201cThat became a problem when she needed some support when she was getting attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mullin was not a major driver of negotiations to restore funding for DHS, the secretary was a fixture on news shows, arguing that Democrats were hurting U.S. national security by keeping his department shuttered. In particular, Mullin singled out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> as a \u201clying scumbag politician\u201d for what he characterized as dishonest messaging around Democrats\u2019 opposition to funding legislation.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no love lost with Senate Democrats over that. Schumer\u2019s office said in a statement that Mullin \u201ccan throw around insults all he wants, but the facts are the facts: Senate Democrats passed bipartisan DHS funding bills twice, and House Republicans sat on them for more than 70 days \u2014 holding up funding for TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and other critical agencies because they refused basic accountability for ICE and CBP.\u201d<\/p>\n

That caustic performance did not cost him with most Republicans. Amodei said in an interview that \u201cmy initial impressions are excellent. Communications culture has done a 180 \u2026 he\u2019s been put there to be a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congressional confidence in Mullin is likely to get him over these current hurdles, argued Rep. Michael McCaul<\/a> (R-Texas), a past chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a creature of Congress, and a creature not in a bad sense,\u201d McCaul said. \u201cWe know him from the House. The Senate knows him. That always helps \u2026 there\u2019s a level of trust with Markwayne there that helps a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has taken some steps to improve his department\u2019s relationship with Capitol Hill. Lawmakers in both parties, however, say there\u2019s much more to be done before the damage from his predecessor\u2019s tenure is repaired. Senate Republicans, largely adulatory of Mullin\u2019s early efforts to change course at the Department of Homeland Security, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}