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Floor Speech
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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I want to speak on the vote we are getting ready to take here right now.
The minority leader, Senator Schumer, was on the floor just a minute ago. I certainly hope we can continue to move forward in a good-faith manner to fund Homeland Security and get the reforms and compromise that have been demanded on both sides. I am hopeful we can get there.
But one way we can show that momentum--and I believe there is momentum in these negotiations, because we all need to fund Homeland Security--is to have strong, bipartisan support for the Secretary of Homeland Security whom we are getting ready to confirm here in the U.S. Senate right now. That is my good friend and fellow U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin.
And the Presiding Officer knows it. Every Senator knows it. He is smart. He is thoughtful. He has good friends on both sides of the aisle. As a matter of fact, I would say that Senator Mullin, of all the Senators here, probably works more across the aisle--not just Senators to Senators but Senate and House, Senate and White House. He is a really indispensable convener for this body to get things done. That is his reputation. Everybody knows it, and everybody thinks highly of him. I certainly think highly of him.
But, to me, someone with that skill set and that reputation and that experience of working across the aisle here, of working with Members of the House--by the way, Democrats and Republicans--is exactly the kind of leader we need at Homeland Security at this moment--exactly the kind of leader we need at Homeland Security at this moment.
So I am very hopeful that we are going to have a strong bipartisan vote for our colleague Senator Markwayne Mullin to move forward as the Secretary of Homeland Security. Of course, that would be good for the Senate, showing a bipartisan vote on someone who is clearly qualified-- and, yes, does have the temperament. I know that came up in the hearing. But, again, when I watched him work for years in this body, there is no one who works harder to actually try to get compromise to move things forward. That is his reputation here. And I know my Senate colleagues on the other side of the aisle agree with me on this.
So strong bipartisan support is what I have been pitching so many of my Democratic colleagues on, for this highly qualified U.S. Senator. It would be good for the Senate. It would be good for the Department of Homeland Security. To be honest, given what has been going on with Homeland Security, it would be good for the country, and I hope we can get there.
As I mentioned, I have been working with a lot of my colleagues-- Republicans but especially Democratic colleagues--to say: Come on. We need this at this moment. You guys should be a yes. You all know you should be a yes.
By the way, in private--and I have a lot of good friends on the other side of the aisle--they say: Hey, Dan, I know I should be a yes on this, but--but--there are a lot of buts in terms of excuses. They are not great excuses. I won't go through all of them.
Hey, I am from a really blue State. Tough on me. Hey, I might be running for Governor. Hey, I might be running for President.
This is what they have said.
But I don't think that should matter. We have all taken those kind of votes, tough votes, that we know are the right thing to do. And, again, as I mentioned, it is the right thing to do right now for Homeland Security, for the U.S. Senate, for the United States of America, a strong bipartisan support for this great American, by the way, who is highly, highly qualified.
And you know, the excuses are now coming out, the ``buts.'' I mean, we have all taken tough votes. You know, I certainly have taken my few in terms of Cabinet officials. I supported a strong number of Biden Cabinet officials. Those weren't always popular votes back home in my State. I certainly wouldn't have chosen those nominees had I been in that position, but I am a strong believer in the general principle the President should typically get the Cabinet that he wants. And I think President Trump made an inspired choice by nominating Markwayne Mullin.
So I am hopeful that my colleagues--and everybody knows it is the right thing to do, to give him a strong bipartisan vote.
Enough ``buts.'' I have heard too many ``buts'' from my Senate Democrat colleagues. You know he is a qualified individual. You know he is going to do a very good job leading this critical organization.
I am hoping a strong bipartisan vote can then help us lead to compromise and get Homeland Security funded, which is what we need to do. So I am looking forward to working with my good friend--and he is a very good friend--Markwayne Mullin to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security.
We are going to start voting on him here in a couple of minutes. I look forward to working with him on the historic buildup of the Coast Guard in Alaska that is happening--very exciting, icebreakers in the One Big Beautiful Bill--the Working Families Tax Cut Act. I like that name much better. The biggest investment in the Coast Guard in American history--$25 billion--and everybody loved that: Democrats, Republicans.
He is the right man, right individual, to lead this organization at this time, and I am hoping we have a strong bipartisan vote that he deserves in the next couple of minutes to move his nomination forward.
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