Noem is expected to be on track for a forthcoming Senate confirmation vote after surviving a fairly quiet hearing that lasted less than three hours. She faced a minimal amount of pushback from Deomcrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the committee chairman, said he expects the panel to move on Noem’s nomination on Monday following the inauguration ceremony.

“I don’t see a reason why they, Democrats, would maybe not let her go on Monday,” Paul said. “I think that Secretary of State [nominee] Rubio, I think there’s a chance we’ll vote on him on Monday.”

1. Border security tops line of questioning

Border security came up time and time again through Noem’s questioning.

“Securing our homeland is a serious, sacred trust that must be relentlessly pursued and can never be taken for granted,” Noem said, later adding that “the No. 1 threat to our homeland security is the southern border.”

Noem vowed to ensure Biden-era immigration initiatives would be shut down as soon as Trump took office. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) asked if that would include ending CBP One, a phone app run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to schedule appointments and receive documents for immigrants outside the country, who are overwhelmingly admitted.

“Yes, senator,” Noem said. “We will eliminate the CBP One app, maintain some of the data that’s in it that’s critical to knowing who’s in our country, but that app will no longer be in use.”

Noem maintained that although she would be working with homeland security adviser Stephen Miller and “border czar” Tom Homan, Trump himself would be the one making decisions about the border.

“Well, the president will be in charge of the border,” Noem said.

2. Noem backed by top senator

Noem was introduced by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who described her as a champion back home. Thune’s endorsement as the top member of the 100-person Senate was a not-so-subtle nod to senators to confirm Noem.

“It’s going to require a tremendous amount of persistence and determination, which I think she has, an enormous amount of energy, which she has in abundance, and frankly, what I would say is just absolute toughness can take some, some tough and hard leadership to get things back in order,” Thune said.

Thune added that he believed Noem, the governor of South Dakota since 2019 and a former House member, possesses the skill set necessary to oversee the 260,000 employees at the DHS.

“Securing the homeland is the … No. 1 constitutional priority as a Congress, and it is, for sure, the No. 1 priority of the voters in the last election, and it is the No. 1 priority for President Donald Trump,” Cramer said. “Naturally, he would say, ‘Who is the toughest, smartest, most capable protector that I know? I think I’d like to find a ranch woman, mom, grandmother, who knows how to protect her own.’”

3. Wildfire funding distribution

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) pushed Noem on whether she would withhold federal funding from a state or location at the order of Trump, a reference to Trump’s previous threat not to give Federal Emergency Management Agency aid to people in California for political reasons.

“We won’t give him money to put out all his fires,” Trump said about Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) last fall, as the California governor was asking for federal funding to fight an incoming Trump administration.

“The specter is there of potential discrimination based on politics withholding money from California or other states,” Blumenthal said. “It’s not an unfounded fear.”

Noem promised to exercise “no political bias” in the consideration of who to release federal funding to and vowed to stay within the confines of the law — that if someone was eligible, they would receive money.

Noem also claimed that federal agencies with high levels of employees working remotely had negatively affected the country.

“I’ve heard since being nominated for this position that many of the agencies within the department are not showing up,” Noem told Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA). “They’re not doing their jobs. Even FEMA, who is responsible for disaster response, that they have the alternative, some of these employees to not even respond to a disaster, which might explain the horrific results that we saw in North Carolina when they had such a terrible disaster that impacted families and communities, and FEMA failed them so miserably.”