Hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Rob Portman, Hearing on Kirstjen Nielsen's nomination

Hearing

"Thank you Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you and Senator McCaskill giving me the privilege of being able to introduce the nominee today. Kirstjen Nielsen, as was just said by my colleague Senator Rubio, is so qualified for this job. I must say, Mr. Chairman, that when you laid out the challenges we face--it's sobering, and we need to have somebody with the experience and the qualifications that she has, and we need that right now.

"Before commenting further on her distinguished career and qualifications, I do want to take a moment to acknowledge fellow Ohioan and Acting Secretary Elaine Duke for her service. She took over the secretary duties at a challenging time and has displayed leadership and dignity. I know she has worked closely with you, Mr. Chairman, the Ranking Member, and others.

"Kirstjen is not a native Ohioan like Ms. Duke, but I am equally excited to introduce her this morning. We served concurrently at the White House in the George W. Bush administration where she was a trusted hand in the formative years of the Homeland Security Council as senior director for prevention, preparedness, and response. I saw a decade ago a professional dedicated to public service and the mission of securing the homeland, just as I see that today in her actions more recently at Homeland Security and at the White House. I'm delighted again that she is stepping forward to take on this responsibility.

"I appreciated the opportunity to sit down with her a couple of weeks ago to hear about her priorities for the Department of Homeland Security. It sounds like you all have done the same thing. It's exciting to have someone with her energy and enthusiasm, work ethic was mentioned by Senator McCaskill, and again her qualifications to do this. She has this Hill experience we talked about a moment ago, and she also has private sector experience in the area of homeland security. I think most importantly, perhaps, she is the first Department of Homeland Security nominee with previous experience at DHS. I think that is important given the serious challenges you just described for us, Chairman Johnson.

"With this homeland security expertise and experience from those transformative years for the Department and at the White House, her industry and homeland security consulting experience, and her most recent roles in this administration, she will be the kind of experienced and capable leader we need now in this ever-evolving threat environment that we find ourselves in.

"Most recently, of course, she served as the Chief of Staff to former-Secretary John Kelly. She proved herself in the early stages of the administration transition and saw first-hand the challenges of managing this diverse and sprawling agency. Senator McCaskill is right, it's a management challenge. She has seen firsthand those challenges.

"Throughout her career in government and the private sector, she has developed extensive experience in homeland security strategy, cybersecurity, transportation security, and emergency resilience. She speaks regularly about the need for resilience in our homeland security posture, and I think that is incredibly important for the next secretary.

"Mr. Chairman, you noted in your opening comments that the committee received written introductions for this hearing from former DHS Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff. I know both regret that they could not be here today in person, as does General Kelly, to endorse Kirstjen's nomination. These leaders know what this job entails. If I may, I'd like to just briefly read a couple of excerpts from their letters about what they said about Kirstjen.

"Kirstjen, according to Secretary Ridge, "has been engaged in counter-terrorism, all-hazard risk mitigation, critical infrastructure protection and response policy from the earliest days of what we now know as Homeland Security. She brings operational experience as well, having managed the day-to-day operations of the Department. She has since served as the Principal Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House charged with coordinating the interagency policy making process at the highest levels with the secretaries and deputy secretaries. Simply put, she is ready to hit the ground running day one.' That's from Secretary Ridge.

"From Secretary Michael Chertoff, he said this: "she played a key role then helping lead the lessons learned efforts post-Katrina informing and changing the way we have dealt with disaster preparation and response ever since. Kirstjen is a homeland security leader for our times. More than any previous secretary, she understands the 21st Century challenges of the borderless cyber domain and has worked in both the public and private sectors to address this deeply interconnected and consequential risk to America's national security and economic stability. Kirstjen Nielsen offers our nation the credentials required of the Secretary of Homeland Security in today's environment: expertise in homeland security policy and operations; national and international perspective, and; public and private sector experience in the mission space.'

"Mr. Chairman, I echo those strong sentiments about Kirstjen myself. I believe that her work ethic, her experience, and her leadership is what's needed at Homeland Security, and needed now.

"I am sure we will have a fruitful discussion with the nominee today. I look forward to asking her a few questions myself.

"I hope we can move this nomination quickly out of the committee and through the Senate so we can get her to work as the next Secretary of Homeland Security at a critical time."

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