Homeland security Democrats set Nov. 4 deadline for records on DHS’s $464 million aircraft purchase

By Renata Vos

WASHINGTON — The top Democrats on the House and Senate homeland security committees have sent new demands to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin over the department’s spending, including a $464 million no-bid purchase of 10 aircraft. The House letter sets a Nov. 4 deadline for contracts and communications about the deal.

The Department of Homeland Security has said the aircraft contract predates Mullin. “The contract for Daedalus was made and approved by department leadership before Secretary Mullin was sworn in,” the department said in a statement to The New York Times, republished by The Philadelphia Inquirer in August. The department said it “reserves the right to adjust course in an environment with evolving requirements and demands,” and that idle Boeing 737s had been undergoing maintenance checks, with two planned to begin deportation flights. Last fall, then-DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The Washington Post that owning the planes would allow “ICE to operate more effectively, including by using more efficient flight patterns,” according to the Times.

The House letter

In an Oct. 21 letter, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Mullin that DHS had not answered a June 9 letter on the department’s jets or a June 25 letter on large contracts. Citing Times reporting, the letter says DHS paid $464 million for 10 aircraft — three luxury jets and seven Boeing 737s — from Daedalus Aviation, whose chief executive had donated to a political committee connected to former Secretary Kristi Noem.

The letter says one of the planes has been leased to the FBI while the others sit idle. Thompson called the purchases “wasteful, irregular, and potentially corrupt” and wrote, “This abuse and misuse of taxpayer funds at the highest levels of the Trump administration is an outrageous breach of trust.” Those characterizations are Thompson’s.

Thompson asked for five sets of records by Nov. 4:

The same day, Thompson sent a separate letter to Walters, the head of Daedalus, seeking documents on the sale, according to the committee Democrats’ release. The letters were copied to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.).

Daedalus has defended its work. The company said it was proud to provide “the best value to the American taxpayer,” and a spokesperson said Walters was unaware that the political committee he gave to was tied to Noem, the Times reported. The FBI told the Times it was paying DHS significantly less for its jet than it had paid a private company for a similar plane. A spokesperson for Noem said the purchase was “finalized” under Mullin; contracting records show the contract grew by $303 million on the day he was sworn in, according to the Times.

The Senate letter

Two days earlier, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote to Mullin about oversight of more than $260 billion that DHS received through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Secure America Act.

Peters’s examples included Customs and Border Protection awarding border wall contracts even though the government lacks access to more than half of the 700 miles where construction is planned; $20.5 million spent on detention warehouses the department later decided to sell; reports that Mullin used a Gulfstream G700 for trips to Oklahoma and authorized the purchase of 12 more aircraft, including five luxury jets; and reports that DHS bought television ads featuring President Donald Trump.

“While the Trump Administration has claimed it is committed to maximizing government efficiency and reducing waste and abuse, current DHS spending and its lack of planning for any meaningful oversight of that spending raises questions about the sincerity of this commitment,” Peters wrote. In June, the committee rejected his amendment to the Secure America Act that would have directed nearly $1 billion to the DHS inspector general, according to his office. Federal News Network also reported on the letter.

Both letters were signed by the committees’ Democratic ranking members; the Republican chairmen, Garbarino and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), did not sign them.

The Inquisitor has asked DHS, Chairman Garbarino’s committee staff, Ranking Member Thompson’s committee staff, Chairman Paul’s committee press office and Ranking Member Peters’s office for comment, and will update this story with any response.