The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a confirmation hearing at 10 a.m. Nov. 8 for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary nominee Kirstjen M. Nielsen. Since early September, Nielsen has served as White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, reporting to former DHS Secretary and current White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Prior to joining the Trump administration, she served senior fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, and also had a consulting business focused on a homeland security and emergency preparedness issues. Nielsen was an assistant to President George W. Bush as well as a director on the White House Homeland Security Council after 9/11. She has Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
A profile in the New York Times, says that she is “[K]nown as a no-nonsense player and policy wonk,” and that she “appears unlikely to land at the center of the type of controversies that have engulfed Mr. Trump’s presidency.” But she’s not beyond criticism either, with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, telling the paper he’s concerned about her connection with the Bush administration, Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and Trump’s response to recent hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and insisted the “DHS secretary stay above the partisan fray.”
Watch the complete hearing here.