A Senate committee gave initial approval Wednesday to Chad F. Wolf, President Trump’s pick to lead the Homeland Security Department, with Republicans brushing aside complaints from immigrant-rights groups to power the nomination to the Senate floor.
Mr. Wolf has been serving for nearly a year as acting secretary, but that arrangement is facing tricky legal questions, so Republicans are suddenly moving with speed to get Mr. Wolf confirmed.
The 6-3 vote in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee sets up a full floor vote as early as next week.
“I think acting Secretary Wolf has done a pretty good job based on all the things that he has to deal with as secretary,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the committee.
No Democrats spoke against Mr. Wolf during Wednesday’s meeting, but they have been vocal about disapproving of his nomination.
“Mr. Wolf simply has not shown a willingness to stand up to this president,” Sen. Tom Carper, Delaware Democrat, said in a statement after the committee vote.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, urged the Senate to reject the elevation for Mr. Wolf.
Mr. Wolf earlier this month defied a subpoena issued by Mr. Thompson, and the two men have been at odds over everything from Homeland Security’s role in quelling unrest in cities this summer to the detention of undocumented immigrants during the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Thompson, a Democrat, said Mr. Wolf has been shutting Congress out of answers.
“Mr. Wolf’s obvious and blatant disregard for Congressional oversight and his repeated failure to provide even the most basic information required by the committee to understand the department’s actions render him unfit for confirmation as Secretary of a Cabinet-level department,” said Mr. Thompson, who plays no formal role in the Senate confirmation process.
Senate Republicans disputed Mr. Thompson’s characterization.
“In numerous hearings acting Secretary Wolf has been direct and informative to our committee about the facts on the ground facing our nation’s men and women in law enforcement, and he has done so amid partisan vitriol and misinformation reported in the media,” said Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican who supported Mr. Wolf in committee on Wednesday.
Mr. Wolf was confirmed to be the department’s undersecretary for strategy last year, on a 54-41 vote. That cleared the way for him to become acting secretary. Just two Democrats backed him in that vote.
The Homeland Security Department, created in 2003, spans everything from immigration enforcement to emergency management to cybersecurity to the Coast Guard to the Secret Service presidential protection unit.
The department has been roiled by turnover under President Trump. Mr. Wolf would be the fifth person to helm it since the president took office.
John F. Kelly took the job on Inauguration Day but would leave in the summer 2017 to be Mr. Trump’s White House chief of staff. Elaine Duke took over as acting secretary, then one of Mr. Kelly’s top aides, Kirstjen Nielsen, was confirmed to the post in late 2017.
She served until April 10, 2019, when she was pushed out by Mr. Trump. The department’s border chief, Kevin McAleenan, became acting secretary, lasting until Nov. 13, when Mr. Wolf assumed the acting role.
That chain of succession is now under legal scrutiny.
The Government Accountability Office has ruled that Mr. Wolf is not legally serving as acting secretary, nor is Ken Cuccinelli, the No. 2 official, legally serving in that role. And courts are grappling with whether decisions both men made are legal, given those questions about their roles.
Republicans hope Mr. Wolf’s confirmation could clear up some of those questions.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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