The Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, has purchased two Gulfstream G700 luxury jets for top officials – a deal worth about $172 million that is now fueling questions over how the agency paid for them and why it needed two.
According to records reviewed by The New York Times, the jets marketed by Gulfstream as offering “the most spacious cabin in the industry,” were bought for what a DHS spokesperson said was “a matter of safety.”
The spokesperson said in a statement that the department’s existing jet was more than 20 years old and “well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft.”
Earlier this year, the United States Coast Guard requested in its budget a single long-range Gulfstream V jet estimated to cost $50 million to replace an aging one used by Noem.
“The avionics are increasingly obsolete, the communications are increasingly unreliable and it’s in need of recapitalization, like much of the rest of the fleet,” acting commandant of the Coast Guard, Kevin Lunday, said in May.
He added that a new aircraft was essential “to provide agency leaders with secure, reliable, on-demand communications and movement to go forward, visit our operating forces, conducting the missions and then come back here to Washington and make sure we can work together to get them what they need.”
But Democrats are calling the move another example of Noem’s lavish spending habits at taxpayer expense, particularly amid the government shutdown. It remains unclear where the funding came from.
Representatives Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and Lauren Underwood of Illinois, the top Democrat overseeing its homeland security panel, asked Noem in a letter reviewed by The New York Times, to “clarify the funding source.”
“In addition to raising serious questions about your ability to effectively lead an agency whose procurement strategies appear to vary on a whim, the procurement of new luxury jets for your use suggests that the U.S.C.G. has been directed to prioritize your own comfort above the U.S.C.G.’s operational needs, even during a government shutdown,” they wrote. “We are deeply concerned about your judgment, leadership priorities, and responsibility as a steward of taxpayer dollars.”
Earlier this year, Republicans included about $25 billion in new funding for the Coast Guard, including about $2.3 billion for “procurement and acquisition of rotary-wing aircraft.”
This week, Noem said she was using some of those funds to ensure Coast Guard members did not miss a paycheck during the current government shutdown, The Times reported.
Noem’s spending as South Dakota governor also drew attention, according to The Sioux Falls Argus Leader who reported in 2021 that she spent $68,000 in taxpayer money to redecorate the governor’s mansion. And South Dakota taxpayers also covered about $150,000 in Noem’s personal and political travel costs, the Associated Press reported back in March.
The Independent has reached out to DHS for comment.
