Senator Markwayne Mullin speaks to members of the media near the Senate chamber floor at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., March 5, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Donald Trump's recent shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security is set to leave the Senate GOP with a major "vacancy," according to The Hill, with some lawmakers worrying that "nobody" will be able to fill it.
Last week, Trump announced that he would be removing Kristi Noem as DHS secretary by the end of March, after she reportedly drew his ire with certain answers during a Senate hearing. He further nominated Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an outspoken and often controversial MAGA loyalist, to replace her.
Speaking with The Hill for a report published Thursday, several GOP lawmakers in Congress lamented the impending loss of Mullin, as he had come to serve a key role that helped the party communicate between chambers: Senate liaison to the House, or "House whisperer," as the report described it.
Due to his prior five terms in the House, Mullin had maintained considerable connections in the chamber when he made the jump to the Senate. These helped him manage communications between the chambers in ways that have proven difficult for lawmakers in the past. His role is not an official one, and did not really exist prior to his term in the Senate, but it has helped him amass considerable influence and create a close working relationship with Majority Leader John Thune.
“People outside of D.C. think the north side of the building and the south side of the building talk to each other all the time and… that’s not true,” Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican and former House member, told The Hill. “It’s hard to be able to maintain relationships across the building because our schedules are different, we function different, the structure of how we actually operate is so different.”
Lankford added: “Markwayne had really good relationships in the House and the Senate, and that’s going to be tough. It’ll be a loss for the Senate for him going into this position, but it’ll be a gain for the country for him to be able to do it.”
The Hill explained that Mullin has been known to attend House hearings frequently. He also served as a key mediator between the Senate and House during the negotiations surrounding Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" last year.
“I know it sounds kind of crazy, but people weren’t doing that before him,” former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat-turned-Independent, explained.
Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican and friend of Mullin, expressed concern about finding someone else to fill the role once he moves on to DHS.
“Nobody’s going to be able to do what he’s done,” Britt said. “We have a number of members who have great relationships in the House. I think that they will, obviously, elevate those… It’ll take a lot of people to fill the role of one person, and because it’s not just one person, there’s a connectivity issue there.”