She doesh’t have a 2026 Congressional Budget and it don’t look it’s gonna come anytime soon….
She has few to NO friends up on ‘The Hill’…..
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced aggressive lines of questioning from members of both sides of the aisle in a long-awaited hearing that fell amid growing scrutiny of the secretary’s handling of the department.
Noem received a chilly reception at the Senate Judiciary Committee, even from some of the committee’s GOP members, with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) unleashing a 10-minute tirade he described as a performance review and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) questioning a $220 million ad campaign he said “boosted your name recognition.”
Democrats, meanwhile, pressed Noem to defend her assertions that slain Minnesotans Renee Good and Alex Pretti were domestic terrorists — claims that were vigorously disputed as the videos of both fatal shootings emerged.
Two separate protesters were also removed from the hearing, including one woman who identified herself as a former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employee and said Noem should be ashamed of herself…
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The hearing was a remarkable display of GOP frustration with Noem, a rare dynamic from lawmakers who are often hesitant to vocally criticize members of the president’s Cabinet.
While many of the panel’s Republican senators praised Noem, Tillis hammered the secretary for everything from quashing independent oversight of her department to killing her own dog. He threatened to place a hold on nominees awaiting confirmation until the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to his queries on an immigration raid carried out in North Carolina.
“I’m giving you a performance evaluation here — I’m not looking for a response,” Tillis said, adding that “time after time after time, I’ve been disappointed.”…
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Noem was repeatedly asked to apologize for accusing Good and Pretti of trying to carry out acts of domestic terrorism before they were shot and killed by federal agents.
Noem at each turn declined to offer an apology, instead repeatedly offering her sympathy to their families.
“One of the most hurtful things they could ever imagine was said by you about their son,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said, referring to Pretti’s family. She added Noem made the claim “without any evidence of that.”
Pressed by Klobuchar, Noem denied applying the label of “domestic terrorist” to Pretti….
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The DHS also took heat from both sides of the aisle over how it has carried out immigration enforcement more broadly.
Grassley said he believes “immigration enforcement and dignity aren’t mutually exclusive,” while Tillis said the Trump administration was letting a fixation on deportation guide indiscriminate enforcement.
“We just want numbers. We want a thousand a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day, because numbers matter, right? No, they don’t matter. Quality matters; not quantity, quality. And what we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem — a disaster,” Tillis said, noting that enforcement has routinely swept up U.S. citizens.
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Durbin noted that one judge found U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violated court orders 96 times in January alone. By his count, federal judges across the country have ruled more than 4,440 times that ICE is detaining immigrants illegally.
Under questioning from Booker, Noem said she was complying with court orders, which left the senator incredulous.
“You are saying under oath that you do,” he said before pointing to the ruling from Minnesota finding otherwise.
“Either you are utterly incompetent, or you are violating laws with impunity,” he said.
Noem used her appearance to plead for the Senate to reach a deal to end the DHS shutdown, which is now in its third week, though she pinned the blame on Democrats.
“More than 100,000 dedicated DHS employees are once again being asked to work without pay for the third time in just five months,” Noem said in her opening statement…..
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“While Republicans claim the DHS shutdown is putting us at risk, the reality is this administration has engaged in mass layoffs of career national security officials and diverted many others from protecting the homeland with the president’s mass deportation campaign,” he said, adding that Noem still has “an unprecedented amount of appropriated funds — more than the United States Marine Corps.”.
More Noem negatives …
Internal DHS watchdog: Noem is obstructing our work
The Office of the Inspector General said in a letter he has been denied access to records in at least 10 investigations.