Lankford Introduces Mullin at DHS Secretary Nomination Hearing: “He’s Not Afraid to Do the Work”
WASHINGTON, DC — US Senator James Lankford (R-OK), Chairman of the Border Management, Federal Workforce, and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), today introduced fellow Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) at his nomination hearing to be Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), highlighting his work ethic, leadership, and readiness to lead DHS.
Lankford’s introductory statement (as delivered):
“Markwayne, I’m proud that you’re here. I get the honor and getting a chance to be able to recognize and introduce my friend Markwayne Mullin, my fellow Senator from the state of Oklahoma, and somebody that I’ve seen work incredibly hard to be ready for every single task you’ve ever taken on and to be able to not only do it, but do it well.
“There are a lot of folks that think they know you. I actually get to know you, and I have had the opportunity to be able to serve beside you for now over a decade and have seen your tenacity and your work effort. Folks may not know that the first time we really got to know each other, ironically enough, was around a natural disaster, a FEMA event.
“It was Briarwood Elementary in 2013 when a tornado came right through the heart of Oklahoma. You had literally just been elected a few weeks before that and had just taken the oath of office. The Oklahoma delegation all gathered together at the very tragic event there at Briarwood Elementary. And while we were meeting with the principal and meeting with teachers and families and walking through the debris field that was that elementary school, we turned around to be able to look for Markwayne, and for a minute we couldn’t find him because in one of the debris piles, there was water shooting out of the middle of it.
“And his plumber instinct said, ‘I’ve got to go find that and figure out how to solve that.’ And so while everyone else was shaking hands and meeting people, he was digging through the debris field to find a way to be able to shut off the water that was shooting through the middle of that destroyed elementary school. And I remember smiling, thinking he’s a guy that doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty to actually go solve the problem. Where there’s a problem he can solve, he’s going to do whatever it takes to actually solve it.
“Markwayne grew up in a very small town in far eastern Oklahoma, ironically named Westville, in the easternmost part of Oklahoma. Just 1,300 people call Westville home. He grew up in a family of modest means – I think I’d be safe to be able to say. The youngest of seven children in a family that just didn’t have much.
“His dad ran a very small plumbing company that then Markwayne took on and grew into being one of the largest plumbing companies in the entire state. He married his high school sweetheart, one of the smartest things he ever did, at just 20 years old, and he and Christie have developed a family that is a beautiful family of three children they had naturally and three children they chose, that they adopted and took them in. It is a remarkable family and a remarkable success that you have actually led through a lot of hard work and a lot of love and tenacity. He is a person of faith that is not afraid to be able to talk about his faith in Jesus Christ, but he is also a person who has deep respect for all people.
“Markwayne has served in Congress for 14 years – 11 years in the House of Representatives, three here in the Senate. He’s passed legislation that he will now be charged with actually implementing in the order that was actually passed. He served on the Appropriations Committee here. He served on Armed Services, has served on the HELP Committee here, and he’s done an incredible job in the work that he’s done with Indian Affairs.
“He is somebody who has the rare gift of bringing people together on both sides of the aisle. And the one thing I would say to every single person on this dais is regardless of whether you’re Republican or Democrat, if you want to sit down and talk about an issue, he’s glad to be able to talk about it and to be able to work it out and has very good relationships in the House and in the Senate.
“And he is not afraid to ask questions when he doesn’t know the answer and to be able to research things. He and I have often talked about being up late, both of us working on researching through an issue to try to be able to learn more about it. Because the crazy thing about being in Congress is you don’t know everything. You’ve got to do the work. And Markwayne is not afraid to do the work.
“Over the past year and a few months, we’ve seen incredible progress on our southern border. Our southern border 18 months ago, I think we forget what it looked like: 12,000 people a day illegally crossing our border, just being waved in, no vetting, no background checks. Twelve thousand people a day. That is not happening anymore. Our numbers are down on the southwest border 96%. So you walk into an agency that has finally restored some order to our southern border, but there’s a lot of work still to do with FEMA, with other areas of homeland security, and a very large agency with 250,000 people that are actually under your leadership there.
“So I’m confident that you’ll be able to take those things on. Not only am I confident, the National Border Patrol Council has already sent a letter in strong support here. And, Mr. Chairman, I’d like to ask unanimous consent to insert into the record the National Border Patrol Council, their letter of support, leadership of the Cherokee Nation, their strong support, and then my fellow Senator Katie Britt, has an opening statement, I’d like to also submit for the record with you with unanimous consent. Thank you.
“This is a person that actually lives what we affectionately call in Oklahoma the Oklahoma Standard, that when hard things actually occur, you step up and you serve your neighbor, and you find ways to be able to help people to do the hard things that have to be done. So, Markwayne, I appreciate your leadership. I appreciate your willingness to be able to step up in a season where DHS needs a leader to be able to step into that role and to be able to help our nation in so many different, complicated areas, especially at a time when right now we can’t even get funding to DHS.
“We’ve got to be able to have good, solid leadership there.”
You can view Lankford’s introduction of Sen. Mullin HERE. You can download it HERE.
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