The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted 8-7 on Thursday to advance the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to lead the Department of Homeland Security, sending his name to the full Senate despite bipartisan concerns about his temperament, his murky claims of overseas military-style service, and whether he’s the right person to lead an agency in the middle of a funding crisis that has left TSA agents working without pay for over a month.
The deciding vote came from an unlikely source: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who broke with every other Democrat on the panel to give Mullin the margin he needed after committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted against him.
Had Fetterman sided with his party, Mullin’s nomination would have stalled in committee — a potentially fatal blow to his path to confirmation.
A Hearing That Got Personal Fast
Wednesday’s three-hour confirmation hearing was unusually heated, even by Senate standards. Rather than the typically collegial treatment nominees receive from their own colleagues, Mullin faced pointed questioning from senators on both sides of the aisle.
Paul, who chairs the committee, used the hearing to air a longstanding feud. Mullin recently called Paul a “snake” and said publicly that he “understood” why Paul’s neighbor physically attacked him in 2017 — an assault that broke six of Paul’s ribs.
When Paul pressed Mullin to apologize, the Oklahoma senator refused, instead telling Paul they should “set it aside” and move forward.
Paul wasn’t having it. After the hearing, he told reporters that someone who applauds political violence shouldn’t be running an agency that oversees ICE and Border Patrol. “You cannot restore law and order with someone who has an anger problem,” Paul wrote on social media.
The ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), was equally blunt. He questioned whether Mullin had the “experience or the temperament” to lead the department, calling him out for failing to be transparent throughout the nomination process.
The “Classified” Trip Nobody Can Verify
One of the stranger moments of the hearing centered on Mullin’s vague and shifting claims about overseas service. Mullin, a former professional MMA fighter and plumbing company owner with no military record, has previously made comments about knowing how war “smells.”
When pressed by Peters on when exactly he would have encountered war, Mullin cited an international trip he took in 2016 but refused to elaborate publicly, claiming the details were classified.
Peters pushed back, noting that Mullin’s FBI background report contained no indication of any classified operations. Paul threatened to cancel Thursday’s committee vote unless Mullin provided clarity to lawmakers in a secure briefing room.
Mullin did meet with senators in a classified setting after the hearing, but members emerged far from satisfied. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), Mullin’s fellow Oklahoma Republican, said afterward that the trip probably wasn’t classified at all — it may have only been subject to a nondisclosure agreement.
Paul summed it up with diplomatic understatement: “There are still some mysteries regarding his war service.”
Fetterman’s Party-Bucking Vote
Fetterman, who has increasingly positioned himself as a contrarian within the Democratic caucus, did not speak before casting his vote Thursday morning. He instead posted a statement on social media explaining his decision.
Fetterman pointed to his earlier call for Trump to fire Kristi Noem from the DHS post — which Trump did — and said he approached Mullin’s confirmation with an open mind. He framed his vote as being rooted in their “strong committed, constructive working relationship” and the need for leadership at the department.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Fetterman skipped the adversarial questioning that his colleagues pursued, instead reminiscing about a trip he and Mullin had taken together to help Americans jailed abroad. “It’s not gonna be about gotcha moments for me,” Fetterman told Mullin. “It’s about just saying my experience with you has been consistent kindness and professionalism.”
It was a striking departure from other Democrats on the panel, who spent the hearing cataloging serious concerns about the nominee.
The DHS Mullin Would Inherit Is in Crisis
If confirmed, Mullin would take over a department that is — to put it plainly — falling apart.
DHS has been shut down since February 13, when funding lapsed amid a standoff between Democrats and the White House over immigration enforcement reforms.
The shutdown, now in its 34th day, has been devastating for the agency’s 260,000-plus employees, particularly the roughly 50,000 TSA agents who have been forced to work without pay.
More than 366 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began. Callout rates have surged, with some airports seeing more than half their agents not showing up for shifts. At Houston’s Hobby Airport, 55% of officers called out on a single day. JFK averaged a 21% absence rate. Atlanta hit 19%.
The result has been chaos at airports across the country. Wait times have stretched to three and four hours. An acting TSA official warned this week that if the shutdown continues, some airports — particularly smaller ones — may have to close entirely.
TSA employees have reported being unable to pay for cancer treatments, childcare, and rent. Some have been sleeping in their cars. Airports in Denver, Seattle, and Las Vegas have set up donation boxes asking travelers to contribute gift cards and food for the agents screening their bags.
All of this comes on top of the devastating fallout from the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. Two U.S. citizens — Renée Good and Alex Pretti — were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge in January, sparking nationwide protests and a bipartisan reckoning over DHS tactics.
At least 33 shootings by immigration agents have occurred since Trump took office, resulting in nine deaths.
What Comes Next
Majority Leader John Thune has said he hopes to hold a full Senate vote on Mullin’s nomination as early as next week. Trump has pushed for Mullin to begin by March 31. Given the current Senate math, Mullin is expected to clear the 51-vote threshold needed for confirmation.
Mullin tried during his hearing to draw a contrast with Noem’s tenure, telling senators he would admit his mistakes and keep a lower profile. He also signaled a softer approach to ICE enforcement, saying he’d prefer the agency to work with local law enforcement to pick up criminals from jails rather than conducting aggressive street-level operations.
Whether that represents a genuine shift or just confirmation hearing rhetoric remains to be seen. What’s clear is that whoever runs DHS next will inherit a department battered by shutdowns, shaken by deadly force controversies, and facing a workforce that has been pushed to the breaking point.
The question isn’t just whether Mullin can get confirmed. It’s whether anyone can right this ship.
