#Homeland Security Secretary defies House subpoena to testify

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf defied a subpoena to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee Thursday.

It was understood ahead of time that Wolf would not be attending; DHS officials told the committee in a letter earlier this month that it would go against the longstanding practice for him to testify before being confirmed by the Senate.

In a letter to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Assistant DHS Secretary Beth Spivey argued that Wolf’s testimony was not necessary given that the department had offered up their second-in-command, Ken Cuccinelli, to appear in his absence.

“I had written to you on September 8, 2020, that it would be contrary to standard practice for the Acting Secretary, as the President’s selection (and announced at the time as the President’s future nominee) to be Secretary of Homeland Security, to testify before the Committee on Homeland Security on a subject matter unrelated to his nomination while that nomination was pending,” Spivey wrote.

Instead, Wolf met with Senate Homeland Security Committee staff regarding his nomination, CNN reported.

Thompson slammed Wolf for not appearing before his committee as the proceedings began Thursday.

“As the person running the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Wolf should be here to testify, as secretaries of Homeland Security have done before. Instead, we have an empty chair, an appropriate metaphor for the Trump administration’s dereliction on so many of these critical homeland security issues,” the Mississippi Democrat remarked.

Committee Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) came to Wolf’s defense, saying at the start of the hearing, “I am also disappointed DHS is not here today. But I want the record to be very clear why DHS is not represented.”

“Acting Secretary Wolf offered to testify before this committee in both August and July. Unfortunately, the majority refused to make either of those dates work. Now, due to his nomination, Mr. Wolf is prohibited from testifying under a policy that has been in place under both Republican and Democrat administrations for decades,” he continued.

In her letter to the committee, Spivey wrote that the department was willing to work with the panel to find a date after the confirmation process for Wolf had concluded.