Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s demand to personally approve all departmental expenses over $100,000 triggered a spree of ICE and Border Patrol contracts just below that limit, as her agencies seemingly try to work around it.
Noem, 53, in June ordered that any Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obligation above $100,000 needs her personal sign-off. The directive created a backlog of “mission-critical” contracts, according to the New York Times.
Now a new analysis of federal data from the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) a government watchdog group, shows that, from August onward, 11 DHS contracts have been awarded between $99,999 and $99,999.99—five at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and one at Border Patrol.
The contracts flagged by POGO include twin $99,999 training awards to Team Carney, a management consulting firm, in August and September. A $99,999.99 Secret Service order to MacGyver Solutions for Polaris 1000 all-terrain vehicles was also logged in September. Others include a $99,999.96 Border Patrol buy from Quantico Tactical for “chemical munitions,” along with a $99,999.98 ICE technology award to Impres Technology Solutions for “AI-driven analytics.”
In October, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services signed a $99,999.99 contract with Palantir Technologies for just over a month of work on a new “vetting of wedding-based schemes (VOWS)” platform—described as “phase 0” of the project.
POGO notes that small “foot in the door” contracts often position incumbents for far larger follow-on work.
The number of deals at the $99,999 level is striking because DHS had logged only seven contracts in that $99,999 to $99,999.99 band in the decade since the start of fiscal 2016. Now, more than half of all such awards in that period have been issued under Noem’s tightened regime, and none of the 11 flagged since August involve FEMA, the agency engulfed by a controversy over delayed disaster aid.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS assistant secretary and one of Noem’s closest aides, defended the deals to POGO. “These contracts were for routine operational needs,” she said, insisting that “under Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and is reprioritizing appropriated dollars—saving taxpayers more than $13.2 billion in her first 7 months,” before adding: “Her contract policy works, clearly.”
It was reported last month that Noem’s $100,000 sign-off rule has snarled disaster payouts and enraged members of her own party. Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina slapped a blanket hold on DHS nominees over stalled Hurricane Helene aid, while Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia complained about grants being “slow-walked.”
Senior FEMA officials and search-and-rescue chief Ken Pagurek quit in July, fuming over having to wait on Noem’s desk for “mission-critical” spending.
McLaughlin told POGO that “since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025, FEMA is 126% faster on average in getting federal grant funding to states and communities that request it.”
At the same time, Noem’s own spending has come under scrutiny. Democrats last month wrote to Noem saying that DHS’ purchase of two used Gulfstream G700 jets—at around $172 million— for top officials’ travel use raised “serious questions” about whether the department’s procurement “var[ies] on a whim.”
She has also been accused of delaying wider FEMA relief while racing through more than $11 million in funding to rebuild a pier in Naples, Florida, near the home of her longtime adviser Lewandowski, 51, after a wealthy donor intervened.
POGO’s investigation also comes a week after Noem and some of her close allies found themselves embroiled in conflict-of-interest allegations over a $220 million “Stronger Border, Stronger America” advertising blitz.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS and the recipients of the contracts included in POGO’s analysis for comment.
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