Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota is currently interviewing to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security. She would replace Biden's pick, Alejandro Mayorkas, who I believe to be the worst secretary of homeland security in this country’s history.
For the purposes of brevity, let's just focus on the efficiency with which he's managed his department. If I had to grade it, I'd give him a large, bold-lettered "F."
A report in the Washington Times says "Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas blessed his employees with another three days of taxpayer-funded vacation time, bringing his four-year total to more than six weeks — the equivalent of $3 billion — of bonus time off."
In fact, Mr. Mayorkas is so popular among his peers on the hill that he’s known as Santo Mayorkas for his frequent vacation indulgences.
As the taxpayer, it’s your money, and we should all be rightfully upset. They already had a very liberal leave policy, but he doesn't think that’s enough.
Over his four-year tenure, he granted another 269 hours of additional vacation time to Homeland Security employees, likely a record for a single administration.
Records show that in 2021 he granted 45 hours of extra time off. In 2022, he granted 48 extra hours of time off. He hit a stride in 2023, granting nine full days of extra vacation. He topped it in 2024 with an additional 10 full days. And just to ice the cake, in this lame duck period, he topped it off with another 3 days. Keep in mind that the time can be used and booked all through the end of 2026.
Folks inside Homeland Security say it's creating a bookkeeping nightmare because DHS employees can bank vacation days, and they struggle to track who used the time. The way they're operating, they just are hoping employees don't abuse the leave policy.
We’ve given these individuals over a month of vacation and they haven't even worked there 3 years. This is the organization that’s responsible for the security of our homeland, including the secret-service, and they’re treating their vacation policy like some yuppy vegan pet food company.
So what does that lead to? It’s not effective. It’s inefficient. That's heightened by the fact most employees work remotely. Some of this has already come out in the confirmation hearing, and many of the members of Homeland Security are expressing frustration. And it's no wonder why we’re having these homeland security failures.