U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, is prioritizing several security measures as he prepares to enter a Chairmanship role on the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, including taking a look at the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and examining the country’s immigration policies.

“I chose this one because of its investigative ability,” Paul told the Daily News. “This was my choice to do this, and I’m hopeful that we can get a lot done.”

One of the duties for Paul’s committee is presiding over the nomination process for the Department of Homeland Security secretary. He said he supports President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee for this position, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

He said the committee’s first non-confirmation hearing, set for next Thursday, will see former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli speak on current immigration laws.

“We had this debate, do we need a new immigration law to give the president more power to do things,” Paul said. “Biden said, ‘oh, I need more power’ … Biden didn’t have the power because he gave up 90 executive orders that Trump put in place to control immigration. I think what’s going to happen is Trump will do the same thing on day one.”

Paul and his colleagues in Washington believe the current laws give the president “a great deal of latitude” on migrants seeking asylum in the United States.

“We think he has the power to simply say that if you enter the country illegally, you’re ineligible for asylum,” Paul said. “If you do that, then you don’t have millions of people being detained in our country. You don’t have people waiting years for processing.”

Paul is also prioritizing a focus on the origins of COVID-19, saying the National Institute of Health engaged in “dangerous gain-of-function research” into the virus in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus is believed to have originated.

He said this kind of investigation is important because “I’m afraid it could happen again.”

“I’m afraid we could be funding research even in our country that is risky enough that a pathogen could be released that could actually kill many more times than COVID did,” he said.

The committee will also be examining privacy rights, Paul said. Speaking on the USA PATRIOT Act enacted after the 9-11 terror attacks, Paul cited concerns not only with the privacy rights of American citizens but with border agents.

“In the past, we’ve been concerned about border agents being able to patrol hundreds of miles into the country, detaining people without warrants, that kind of thing,” he said. “So there is some intersection between PATRIOT Act sort of snooping in that — I still think it’s a big issue.”

He said the committee will also likely take a look at the Transportation Safety Administration, saying there are things the TSA does at airports that have “absolutely no effect” on counteracting terrorism threats.

Many figures in Washington have been pushing for a ban on the popular social media platform TikTok, citing concerns over the app’s parent company ByteDance having ties to China’s government and collecting data on users.

The current ban effort is on its way to the Supreme Court. An outspoken critic of the ban efforts, Paul said the process of divesting TikTok from ByteDance, much like Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel, is being politicized.

“It’s a phenomenally profitable and valuable resource that 170 million people use,” Paul said. “They don’t want to go out of business. They tried very hard, and I see no reason why we couldn’t have come up with the solution.

“The bottom line is, I’m a big believer in freedom,” Paul said. “If you don’t like TikTok, don’t use it. Do you think your teenagers are being corrupted by it? Don’t use it. These are parental decisions, not governmental decisions.”