The US Senate voted to confirm Republican Senator from Oklahoma Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security, American media reports.

54 senators voted in favor, 45 against.

The US Department of Homeland Security is similar in its functions to interior ministries in other countries.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump stated that Mullin would head DHS on March 31. Under the procedure, a ministerial nominee must be confirmed by the Senate.

Mullin will replace Kristi Noem in the post, whose work had reportedly been actively criticized by many Republican politicians in recent months. In particular, they were displeased with how Noem responded to the deaths of two protesters earlier this year at the hands of US law enforcement officers.