Kristi Noem confirmed as secretary of homeland security
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill on January 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, the firebrand who gained a national spotlight during the coronavirus pandemic, was confirmed by the Senate on Saturday.
The vote was 59-34.
During her confirmation hearing, Noem said the southern border is “not secure” and that she will help to fix it.
“President Trump needs to achieve this mission because two-thirds of Americans support his immigration and border policies, including the majority of Hispanic Americans,” Noem said in her opening statement. “I was the first governor to send National Guard troops to our southern border when Texas asked for help and when they were being overwhelmed by an unprecedented border crisis. If confirmed as secretary, I’ll ensure that our exceptional, extraordinary Border Patrol agents have all the tools and resources and support that they need to carry out their mission.”
The Department of Homeland Security already shut down the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to make appointments at the border to claim asylum — something Noem promised the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee she’d do.
Noem will oversee 22 agencies with more than 260,000 employees who work on issues ranging from the border to federal disaster management to the Secret Service.
“As secretary, I will oversee the Secret Service, an agency that is in serious need of reforms. We all saw the threats to President-elect Trump last year and the consequences of failure,” Noem said. “Now, that should never happen again, and I’ve worked closely with my own gubernatorial protective detail, and I’m familiar with what works and what doesn’t work, and I’ll bring that experience towards strengthening the Secret Service.”
The incoming secretary said she will follow the law and implement reforms with no political bias, including with regard to disaster relief.
She added that “if given the chance to be secretary of homeland security, that I will deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done with no political bias.”
(WASHINGTON) — Many of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees to serve in top Cabinet and senior advisory roles are slated to appear on Capitol Hill this week for hearings before Senate committees, a key test for many of them.
The marathon of nomination hearings will color the week leading up to Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Republicans hope that by holding these hearings now, many of the nominees will be ready for consideration on the Senate floor shortly after Trump is sworn into office.
In total, 14 of Trump’s nominees will appear before their respective Senate panels before the week is out. More hearings will come in the following weeks.
There’s expected to be no shortage of fireworks as some of the top nominees face a grilling before their panels, but for some nominees the hearings are largely perfunctory.
Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of State, for example, is expected to fly through his hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.
Rubio’s experience in the Senate serving as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, which deals closely with a number of classified issues, gives him the bona fides to make even some Democrats comfortable supporting his nomination.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Rubio’s Democratic counterpart on the committee, applauded the Florida senator’s nomination in a statement calling him a “strong voice for American interests around the globe.” Rubio’s expected to pick up the support of a number of Senate Democrats including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida over the weekend.
Fetterman is expected to be a Democratic ally for a number of other nominees as well. He’s expressed support for GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee to serve as United Nations ambassador, and Sean Duffy, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Transportation. Both of these nomination hearings are also expected to pass with little fanfare this week.
But for other nominees who have not been as warmly received on Capitol Hill, these hearings will be a major test.
During these public panels, nominees will take a public grilling from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Democrats who have made clear they have no intention to go easy on nominees whose records they feel are lacking.
According to a source familiar with the discussion, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Senate Democrats behind closed doors last week that confirmation hearings are a good opportunity to hold Trump nominees’ feet to the fire and hold them accountable for Trump’s agenda.
In floor remarks, Schumer has called for a “robust” vetting process of the nominees.
That’s why some Senate Republicans have been especially involved in getting Trump’s nominees ready for the gauntlet, holding practice hearings to help them prepare.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., has been part of mock hearings, which include everything from microphones to name tags, those familiar with the preparations told ABC News. Republican senators have stressed these hearings could be make or break — others have told nominees to watch video clips of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s high-stakes hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an idea of what could be ahead.
Trump’s nominees will benefit from having a Republican majority that is eager to quickly install his team. Still, with Republicans controlling 53 seats in the Senate, some of the more embattled nominees who will not receive any Democratic support can only afford to lose the support of three Republicans.
In a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill last week, Trump urged his conference to stay united behind each of his nominees.
“He asked for strong unity and support to get his team through, and to get them through as soon as possible so they can get to work,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said leaving the Wednesday meeting.
Two sources in the room told ABC News that Trump made a special appeal for Pete Hegseth, his nominee to serve as the secretary of defense.
Ahead of his scheduled Tuesday hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth has been taking part in these practice hearings, ABC News is told.
Hegseth’s hearing will likely be one of the most closely watched of the week.
The former “Fox & Friends” anchor has faced scrutiny from lawmakers over his lack of experience and following reports of both financial and sexual misconduct. Hegseth has denied all of these allegations, but it has created some uncertainty about whether he will get the 50 votes he needs to be confirmed.
That makes Tuesday a make or break moment for him. He’ll face a number of tough lines of questioning from Democrats.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who serves on the Armed Services Committee, told ABC News she’ll focus her questioning on underscoring Hegseth’s lack of qualifications for the role.
Duckworth, a combat veteran, said she’ll focus on “whether or not he is qualified to do the job, whether or not he has the experience to do the job.”
“From everything that I’ve looked at so far he has never managed more than 40 personnel. I don’t know what the largest budget that he has ever successfully managed,” Duckworth said.
Other nominees to watch this week include Pam Bondi, who Trump nominated to be attorney general. Bondi will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Though she is ultimately expected to be confirmed, Bondi will no doubt face scrutiny from Democrats. So too will Kristi Noem, the nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, who comes before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.
Notably, there are a number of high profile nominees whose hearings have not yet been noticed, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump wants as his spy chief.
For some of these nominees, confirmation hearings are apparently being stalled due to issues with receiving some of the necessary documents.
Sen. John Barrasso, the Republican whip, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Gabbard’s nomination was being held up by a “paperwork problem” with the Office of Government Ethics.
“We had hoped to have the hearing later this week. It looks like it’s going to be the following week,” Barrasso said.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s personal attorney previously lobbied the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine, highlighting an influential Kennedy ally who, sources tell ABC News, has been helping interview candidates for top health jobs in the incoming Trump administration.
Aaron Siri, a partner at the law firm Siri & Glimstad, has long fought against the widespread prevalence of vaccines. He has also filed petitions seeking to pause the distribution of other vaccines, including Hepatitis B, and to revoke the emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines.
The polio petition was made on behalf of one of Siri’s clients, the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a group founded by Del Bigtree, another close Kennedy ally who also has been involved in health-related transition matters, according to sources.
“Petitioner requests that the FDA withdraw or suspend the approval for [the polio vaccine] for infants, toddlers, and children until a properly controlled and properly powered double-blind trial of sufficient duration is conducted to assess the safety of this product,” Siri wrote.
The New York Times reported on the petition earlier Friday.
Siri did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Kennedy, meanwhile, did not respond to written questions about whether he agrees with revoking the approval of the polio vaccine or if, as Health and Human Services secretary, he would intervene in the FDA’s review of Siri’s petitions.
The polio vaccine available in the United States is recommended for children and three doses offer at least 99% protection against severe disease, including paralysis, according to the CDC. Side effects are usually mild and go away on their own, the agency notes, and the vaccine has not been known to cause serious problems.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a razor-thin GOP majority in the House of Representatives that offers Republicans barely any margin of error.
Overnight Wednesday, one of two outstanding races in California tipped toward Democrats, giving Adam Gray a roughly 182-vote lead over GOP Rep. John Duarte in the inland 13th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. In California’s 45th Congressional District, anchored in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, Democrat Derek Tran has a roughly 600-vote lead over Republican Rep. Michelle Steel.
In Iowa, GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks up by 800 votes in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
If these results hold, the House will start with a 220-215 GOP majority, even thinner than the current Congress’ margin.
Republican ranks, however, drop to 219 with former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s resignation. It could fall further to 217 depending on the timing of the resignations of Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who are set to join the Trump administration as U.S. ambassador to United Nations and national security adviser, respectively.
That would send the chamber to a 217-215 margin — essentially a one-seat majority in votes where Democrats stick together in opposition and a historically sliver advantage.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pleaded with Trump to avoid taking any more House members for his administration.
“It’s a great problem to have,” Johnson said on Fox News earlier this month. “We have an embarrassment of riches in the House Republican Congress. Lots of talented people who are very attuned to the America First agenda, and they can serve the country well in other capacities.”
“But I’ve told President Trump, enough already, give me some relief. I have to maintain this majority. And he understands that, of course, we’ve been talking about it almost hourly every day,” he added.
Already, Republicans have dealt with chaos in the current Congress.
Bands of hardline members have grown just large enough to block votes on bills, moves that were once viewed as beyond the pale within the halls of Congress. And, unforgettably, Republican divisions left the House without a speaker for days, both at the beginning when Kevin McCarthy was looking to get the requisite support and again after he gave up the gavel and members were torn for days before coalescing behind Johnson.
Heading into the current Congress, Republicans have sought to grease the skids a little bit more to try to avoid such public brawls from happening in the future.
Republicans agreed to raise the number of lawmakers needed to trigger a vote to oust a speaker from one to nine. In return, lawmakers who oppose proposals to allow votes on bills will not face retaliation.
But with such a narrow margin, any one Republican could and throw the floor into chaos and block the party-line passage of key bills.
One of the largest legislative items up for business is an extension of the 2017 tax cuts that Trump pushed during his first term. They’re set to expire next year, and Republicans have hoped to extend them — but 12 House Republicans voted against the 2017 GOP tax law, which only passed thanks to a larger majority at the time.
In 2017, when Republicans passed a rewrite of the tax code during the first Trump administration, 12 House Republicans — part of a larger majority at the time — voted against the bill, but did not prevent its passage.
Republicans began the 118th Congress in 2023 with 222 seats — a 10-seat margin over 212 Democrats — a majority that spent weeks in the winter selecting a House speaker, and a chunk of the fall selecting a replacement.
A few illnesses, special election surprises, or absences could also disrupt Republicans’ careful balancing act.
In 1917, Republicans held the narrowest majority in history with a 215-213 edge over Democrats. But a group of minor party lawmakers worked with the minority to elect a speaker, delivering the chamber to Democrats, according to Pew.
