South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, will likely face questions on her qualifications and how she intends to close the U.S. southern border and deport millions of illegal immigrants.
The DHS encompasses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Border Patrol, and several other agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Noem’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Jan. 17.
Nominee for secretary of the Department of the Treasury Scott Bessent has vowed that when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, he will unleash “a new economic golden age.”
Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, appeared before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing in Washington on Jan. 16. Democrats asked questions about tax policy, tariffs, and other pressing economic issues.
“As President Trump has said, we will unleash the American economy by implementing pro-growth regulatory policies, reducing taxes, and unleashing American energy production,” Bessent told lawmakers.
WASHINGTON—Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, testified on Jan. 16 before senators on the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Although lawmakers challenged the former New York congressman on some financial controversies, the first round of questioning on Jan. 16 was relatively friendly. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle noted that Zeldin had met with them ahead of the hearing.
1. Bipartisanship and Balance
In his opening remarks, the former congressman spoke about the need to advance environmental goals without compromising the United States’ prosperity.
Interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum told key senators on Jan. 16 that he’d be “aggressive” in opening public lands to oil and gas development in efforts to reverse an “imbalance” in federal leasing policy he said is short-circuiting the nation’s capacity to produce the base-load electricity needed to win “the AI race with China.”
Burgum said one of the swiftest, least expensive ways to boost base-load electricity would be lifting restrictions on oil and gas leasing across the 500 million acres of public lands and 1.7 billion offshore acres he’d be managing as secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s newly created National Energy Council.