On the fiscal front, Mulvaney has challenged the need to raise the national debt ceiling, and on Tuesday, he said that he believed the federal government should consider prioritizing payments if it were in danger of breaching the limit again. In his hearing before the homeland committee, ranking member Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., pointed out that his remarks contradicted testimony from Trump's nominee to lead the Treasury Department, Steven Mnuchin, who said during his confirmation hearing last week that "there should be no uncertainty that we are paying the billls."