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A Senate Republican intends to block President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nominees until Secretary Kristi Noem appears on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters that he was putting holds on future nominees for the agency, because Noem had not yet committed to appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“My chairman has made two requests in this Congress to have the Homeland Security Secretary [Kristi Noem] come before the committee, and they have yet to confirm that they’re coming,” Tillis said. “That is unacceptable, and so I am putting a hold on anything related to Homeland Security measures until we get an agreement and a scheduled time to come for committee at the least.”
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But he made clear that the blockade was not in response to the death of Renee Nicole Goode, whose fatal shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on Wednesday sparked protests.
“The only thing that moves through Homeland Security where I will consider an exception would be having anything to do with the disaster response,” he said.
His holds come after Grassley sent two separate invites for Noem to appear before the committee, one in June and the other in September.
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It also comes on the heels of Senate Republicans touting their blistering pace to confirm several hundred of Trump’s picks.
Still, the move to block Trump’s DHS picks is another instance of Tillis pushing back against the administration. Tillis announced last year that he would not support Trump’s crowning legislative achievement of his second term, the “big, beautiful bill,” over issues with cuts to Medicaid.
He also announced that he would not seek re-election shortly after, and has since on occasion broken ranks with Republicans to push back on the president’s agenda.
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Most recently, he pushed back on recent rumblings from the White House and administration officials that military force was not off the table to advance Trump’s desire to control Greenland.
“I’m sick of stupid,” Tillis said on the Senate floor earlier this week. “I want good advice for this president, because I want this president to have a good legacy. And this nonsense on what’s going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work he’s doing, and the amateurs who said it was a good idea should lose their jobs.”
Still, Tillis voted against a related resolution on Thursday to curtail Trump’s future usage of the military in Venezuela, which ultimately advanced with the aid of five Senate Republicans.
DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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