The new rule came down from Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in June — a decree that she would crack down on wasteful spending by personally approving any expense over $100,000.
But Ms. Noem has been slow to sign off on new spending requests, including hundreds of projects that officials have deemed critical to protecting national security and advancing President Trump’s immigration agenda, according to internal documents reviewed by The New York Times.
As of July 30, the most recent date reflected in most of the documents, at least 530 spending requests were awaiting Ms. Noem’s approval, while more than 1,500 other spending requests were awaiting review by lower-level officials before they could land on her desk, according to the documents. And while Ms. Noem said in a June memo that her reviews of the requests could take five days, in many cases they are taking weeks, the documents show.
A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said that as of Monday, Ms. Noem did “not have a single contract on her desk awaiting signature” — a statement that could not be independently verified. But what is clear, from documents and interviews with people briefed on the spending requests, is that the bottleneck in the approval process has halted some operations while threatening further disruptions across the sprawling department, which includes more than a dozen agencies and divisions focused on issues as varied as immigration enforcement, airport security and disaster response.
At the Transportation Security Administration, for example, a contract for airport screening equipment that helps detect fake passports expired in early July while awaiting approval. A lapse in the contract “increases the likelihood of bad actors boarding aircraft using fraudulent identification,” T.S.A. officials wrote in the internal documents.
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