EXCLUSIVE — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has tentatively agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February but is at a crossroads with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the panel chairman, over the length of her testimony.
“She’s willing to come, but she wanted to limit it to one five-minute round, and we won’t stand for that,” Grassley told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, referring to the amount of time each committee member gets to question Noem.
“We’re willing to listen on the number of rounds, but not something at five minutes,” Grassley added, noting that Attorney General Pam Bondi sat for 10 minutes of questioning per senator in an October 2025 hearing.
Noem’s testimony is of particular interest to Democrats on the Judiciary Committee after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis last week, but she has also irked Republicans for not appearing once last year before the panel, despite two separate requests from Grassley.
He took the unusual step of publicly rebuking Noem in December, warning that he expects “better cooperation” from her in the new year, and on Tuesday said that he has been in touch with the White House about her perceived foot-dragging.
The impasse became so severe that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a Republican member of the committee, said in January that he would move to hold up all Department of Homeland Security nominees until a hearing is on the books.
“As soon as that gets scheduled, we can move on from there, but it’s got to be scheduled, and we’ve got to see follow-through,” Tillis said, calling it an “unforced error” not to cooperate with Grassley, the president pro tempore of the Senate.
It is common for the administration to haggle over the length of time a Cabinet secretary will sit for testimony, according to a Senate GOP aide familiar with committee procedure, but five minutes is considered short, and Noem has been generally reluctant to field questions.
“The date isn’t a problem right now,” Grassley said in disclosing the February date. “The length of questioning is a problem.”
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Noem sat for testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee in December but faced criticism for leaving early.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment by press time.