The U.S. Senate is set to confirm Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary, with bipartisan support, as she pledges to enforce strict immigration policies.
Governors and state legislatures may have to bolster their natural disaster response and recovery efforts in the coming years as President Donald Trump looks for ways to shift the federal government’s role onto states.
President Trump recently floated the idea of getting rid of FEMA. It would take an act of Congress to make that happen.
Cameron Hamilton does not appear to have experience coordinating responses to large-scale disasters, like the wildfires in California.
Noem's full name is Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem and she was born in 1971 in Watertown, in east central South Dakota. The city is in Codington County about 187 miles northeast of the state's capital Pierre. The new Secretary of Homeland Security is married to Bryon Noem.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security, vowed to overhaul FEMA's disaster response times, enforce stricter in-office policies and eliminate political bias in relief efforts during her confirmation hearing.
The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on Saturday by a 59-34 vote, putting the former South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and President Donald Trump's plans to clamp down on illegal immigration.
After a scheduling hiccup, Kristi Noem was finally sworn in Saturday as Department of Homeland Security secretary.
The Senate voted on Saturday to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, putting a former South Dakota governor in charge of the department at the heart of President Trump’s agenda to crack down on immigration. The vote was 59 to 34, and she was sworn-in on Saturday afternoon by the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Noem will oversee immigration law enforcement, counterterrorism, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and more.
Noem, a former congresswoman and current governor of South Dakota, vowed to ensure Biden-era immigration initiatives would be shut down.
The US Senate on Saturday confirmed South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a key agency in President Donald Trump's push to clamp down on illegal immigration.