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\n

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin received praise from an unexpected corner of the House on Thursday: Democratic appropriators tasked with funding his department.<\/p>\n

At an oversight hearing for the Department of Homeland Security, Rep. Ed Case<\/a> of Hawaii, along with Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar<\/a> and Veronica Escobar<\/a>, thanked Mullin for an improved culture of communication and engagement between the department and Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

Escobar noted that she recently had \u201ca really great meeting\u201d with Mullin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI so appreciated your openness to hearing me out and hearing out the concerns that I brought to you,\u201d she explained. Escobar also praised Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief David Venturella for \u201cexhibiting that same openness\u201d during a recent visit to El Paso.<\/p>\n

Cuellar, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, noted that border czar Tom Homan and other senior officials were in his district recently and that he was glad to be getting \u201cnotifications before\u201d officials visited now \u201cinstead of hearing that from my mayor and other folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those same Democrats did question the DHS chief on the installation of fencing in sensitive areas along the U.S.-Mexico border and conditions at immigration detention facilities. Still, they maintained a fairly convivial tone with the previous senator and House member from Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

While some Democrats in the hearing did have sharp words for Mullin, his relatively warm reception is notable given the hostile reaction from Democrats that Mullin\u2019s predecessor, former Secretary Kristi Noem, received in her appearances on Capitol Hill. Democrats lashed Noem during hearings, calling for her resignation or firing over a litany of policy disagreements \u2014 from the tone and tenor of immigration enforcement to controversial spending decisions Democrats and some Republicans characterized as self-indulgent and self-serving.<\/p>\n

Mullin had pledged to mend fences with Capitol Hill and work with both Republicans and Democrats, a promise that had prompted skepticism from prominent Democratic lawmakers. The hearing suggested that some improvements to the relationship have materialized.<\/p>\n

Reps. Lauren Underwood<\/a> of Illinois and Rosa DeLauro<\/a> of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the full Appropriations Committee, were less diplomatic. They clashed with Mullin over conditions in immigration detention facilities and the Trump administration\u2019s plans for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n

The exchanges, in which Mullin shouted back at the members and accused them of lying about the department and approaching the Trump administration with a double standard, were sufficiently unruly that Rep. Mark Amodei<\/a> (R-Nev.) intervened and scolded both the members and the Homeland Security secretary.<\/p>\n

Still, the mostly friendly environment allowed Mullin to speak more at length about his policy approaches on a litany of issues in the face of questions from both Democrats and Republicans.<\/p>\n

On immigration enforcement, Mullin pledged that his department was reviewing decisions under his predecessor to acquire warehouses for use in housing unauthorized immigrants in ICE custody, acknowledging to Escobar there are \u201csome that we’re trying to make work, but there was some due diligence that maybe wasn’t actually checked off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullin also explained that the large tranche of funds Congress allocated to DHS via reconciliation allows the department to \u201cset out missions and force ourselves to look at technology today, not just what we can spend in a fiscal year.\u201d He specified that those funds are already providing for investments at ports of entry to handle foreign trade and keeping DHS\u2019 operations stable.<\/p>\n

And he pledged to address a complaint from early in the Trump administration: that staffing levels at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are too low. Mullin argued that there needed to be measured increases to the agency\u2019s currently low staffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we need to hire everybody back? No. Do we need to hire about 600 people back? Yes, but I don’t want to put bodies in position. I want to put the talented individuals that know what they’re doing and have partnerships with our state and local officials,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Mullin also spoke positively about his engagements with Democratic officials. In an exchange with Case, Mullin lavished praise on Hawaii\u2019s Democratic governor, Josh Green, saying Green \u201chas been very helpful.\u201d Green, he explained, \u201creports to us when some governors don’t\u201d and called his approach to DHS \u201ckey to getting this done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Case told Mullin: \u201cI’m texting him as we speak to say that you’re saying nice things about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullin joked back: \u201cDon’t say it. Don’t publish it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin received praise from an unexpected corner of the House on Thursday: Democratic appropriators tasked with funding his department. At an oversight hearing for the Department of Homeland Security, Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii, along with Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar and Veronica Escobar, thanked Mullin for an improved culture of communication […]<\/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-24817","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\/24817","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=24817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}