House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green to exit mid-term for private sector job

Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced Monday that he will retire early from Congress to pursue a job in the private sector.

The Tennessee Republican did not say what his new job will be, but said the private sector opportunity “was too exciting to pass up,” prompting his decision to depart in the middle of his fourth term. 

Mr. Green said he will stick around Congress until the House votes on the final version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” The Senate is currently tweaking the House-passed budget reconciliation package and is aiming to send its revisions back to the lower chamber by the end of the month. 

“Though I planned to retire at the end of the previous Congress, I stayed to ensure that President Trump’s border security measures and priorities make it through Congress,” Mr. Green said. “By overseeing the border security portion of the reconciliation package, I have done that. After that, I will retire, and there will be a special election to replace me.”

His departure will also kick off an internal House Republican election to pick the next head of the Homeland Security Committee.

Mr. Green, 60, said he is proud of what he has accomplished while in Congress, specifically touting his work on a GOP border security package that the House passed last Congress and the party’s effort to impeach President Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“I have no doubt that my colleagues in this Congress will continue to strengthen the cause of freedom,” he said. “May God bless them, and the United States of America.”