McCaul to Be Named Chairman of Homeland Security Committee

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, will be named the chairman of the powerful House Committee on Homeland Security later today, Republican sources have confirmed. 

McCaul, who currently chairs the subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management and is also a member of the subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, will replace Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who announced days ago that he was leaving the post. King has chaired the committee since 2005, the same year the U.S. House granted the committee permanent status. It was created in 2002.

The position will give McCaul, who is outspoken on border security and immigration, control over the committee charged with overseeing the tasks of the Department of Homeland Security. The agency was created following the terrorist attacks in 2001, and its purview includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S Customs and Border Protection, the United States Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the United States Coast Guard, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Transportation Security Administration.

Just weeks ago, McCaul released an update to his earlier report, "A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border," in which he outlined what he calls ongoing threats of spillover violence from transnational gangs and the “new element of Iran and Hezbollah’s influence in Latin America.” On Saturday, McCaul will join U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, in Mexico City, where the delegation will attend the swearing in ceremony of Mexican president-elect, Enrique Peña Nieto. 

McCaul also was first elected in 2004 and also serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on Science and Technology and Committee on Ethics.