House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Amodei (R-NV) intervened on behalf of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) during a particularly heated segment of a hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Order at the committee broke down when DeLauro, the ranking member of the full House Appropriations Committee, began criticizing Mullin’s Department of Homeland Security over the separation of illegal immigrant children from their families. Mullin began defending himself while DeLauro was still speaking, triggering a yelling match.
Mullin first interrupted when DeLauro was condemning the loss of immigrant children under DHS care, contrasting it to dry cleaning when a tag gets you your clothes back, to which the homeland security secretary countered, “I wish the Biden administration would have done that.”
“Let me just say this to you, sir — again, it is my time — 3,900 children were separated from their family,” she said, prompting another interjection with Mullin pointing out the number of children lost under the Biden administration.
“Mr. Secretary, do not interrupt,” DeLauro yelled while pointing her finger at Mullin.
“Don’t point your finger at me,” Mullin said, to which DeLauro yelled, “I will point my finger at you.”
After a muddled back-and-forth, DeLauro demanded of Amodei, “Put him in his place.”
“You should be put in your place,” Mullin retorted.
An exasperated Amodei then explained the rules of the committee to Mullin, clearly taking DeLauro’s side.
“Mr. Secretary. If you would like four minutes for a closing statement, when everybody’s done, I’ll give you that,” he said. “But while members are on their eight minutes, I need them to have their eight minutes.”
The chairman’s intervention was to no avail, however, with the two going right back to sparring after he was done speaking. Mullin tried to explain himself, saying he wasn’t going to let DeLauro “have her soundbites,” triggering new protests. Amodei slammed his gavel after the renewed fighting.
“We are going to have something resembling order here,” Amodei said. “The time is the ranking member’s. If you would like to respond later on, there are methods to do that, but it’s not a who can talk louder into the mic.”
Mullin responded by saying he was not going to “let her lie,” which the chairman again took issue with.
“This is the legislative branch, and it’s my hearing, and so I’m going to try to some extent to control it,” he said.
At another point while arguing about the government shutdown, Mullin tried to dispute whose turn it was to talk, prompting an annoyed lecture from Amodei.
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“Actually, I gave it to her,” he said, referring to DeLauro’s recognized time. “You know, there is a chairman of a committee, that’s me. I gave it back to her.”
The verbal battle confirmed the House hearing as even more unruly than Mullin’s Senate hearing, at which he was grilled by Senate Democrats.