The Senate will hold a confirmation hearing for President-elect Joe Biden’s intended nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security a day before the inauguration.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee leaders announced late Tuesday afternoon that it will hold a committee meeting Tuesday, Jan. 19, to consider the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m., according to committee leaders Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, and Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat.
The sudden push to advance Mayorkas comes a day after acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said he was resigning, effective Monday night. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Pete Gaynor took over in Wolf’s place and is the sixth person to head the department under the Trump administration.
Biden’s transition team said in November that it would nominate Mayorkas, an Obama-era DHS official, to lead the 250,000-person department.
The 61-year-old was born in Havana, Cuba, and if he is confirmed, he will be the first immigrant and Latino to head the third-largest federal department.
Mayorkas was the deputy secretary of the DHS during the final four years of the Obama administration and led the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services during former President Barack Obama’s first term. He oversaw the creation and implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an executive action that permits illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to apply for a reprieve from deportation and for the ability to work in the country. The Biden transition team touted his experience leading the DHS response to the Ebola and Zika crises during the previous administration.
