Senate Republican and Democratic lawmakers joined together in a display of bipartisan condemnation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray after the two declined to testify on Thursday before the Senate on global threats facing the U.S. homeland.
Mayorkas and Wray requested to move the annually-scheduled Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) hearing to a classified setting, which would have broken with 15 years of precedence according to Democratic Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, Chairman of the HSGAC.
“In a shocking departure from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s longstanding tradition of transparency and oversight of the threats facing our nation, for the first time in more than 15 years, the Homeland Security Secretary and the FBI Director have refused to appear before the Committee to provide public testimony at our annual hearing on Threats to the Homeland,” Peters wrote in a statement published on X.
Secretary Mayorkas and Director Wray’s refusal to speak publicly about their departments’ efforts to address the threats our nation faces robs Americans of critical information.
The American people deserve transparency and accountability on these issues. pic.twitter.com/JCZ1KvdUUW
— Senator Gary Peters (@SenGaryPeters) November 21, 2024
“Secretary Mayorkas and Director Wray’s refusal to speak publicly about their department’s work will only increase the concerns that many Americans have about our nation’s security at a challenging time, flout the Committee’s efforts to conduct responsible oversight, and will deal a serious blow to to trust in our government,” Peters added.
“It is unacceptable that the FBI Director and DHS Secretary are refusing to testify publicly at our annual hearing on threats to the homeland,” Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, ranking member of the HSGAC, wrote on X. “The American people deserve to hold these officials accountable for their actions under the Biden Administration.”
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who sits on the Senate HSGAC, called for Wray’s resignation following the director’s refusal to testify before the Senate.
“Secretary Mayorkas and Director Wray’s refusal to testify publicly today in the Senate is an outrage – and a brazen attempt to avoid oversight for the political abuses at FEMA, the FBI and more. I look forward to Director Wray’s resignation,” Hawley wrote on X.
“DHS and the FBI have offered to the Committee a classified briefing to discuss the threats to the Homeland in detail, providing the Committee with the information it needs to conduct its work in the months ahead. DHS and the FBI already have shared with the Committee and other Committees, and with the American public, extensive unclassified information about the current threat environment, including the recently published Homeland Threat Assessment,” a DHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a written statement. “DHS takes seriously its obligation to respond to Congressional requests for testimony; in fact, Secretary Mayorkas has testified 30 times during his tenure.”
Wray and Mayorkas were scheduled to appear before House lawmakers on Wednesday, but the hearing was postponed to December.
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Mayorkas 214-213 on Feb. 13 for failing to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. The Democratic-majority Senate voted to dismiss both articles of impeachment on April 17.
President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering firing Wray before his ten-year term expires in 2027. Vice President-elect JD Vance issued a statement on Tuesday that the transition team is interviewing candidates to replace Wray.
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