Kristi Noem will get luxurious $172M jets she had requested for prompting questions over the place the funding is coming from | EUROtoday

The Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, has bought two Gulfstream G700 luxurious jets for high officers – a deal value about $172 million that’s now fueling questions over how the company paid for them and why it wanted two.

According to data reviewed by The New York Timesthe jets marketed by Gulfstream as providing “the most spacious cabin in the industry,” have been purchased for what a DHS spokesperson stated was “a matter of safety.”

The spokesperson stated in an announcement that the division’s current jet was greater than 20 years previous and “well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft.”

Earlier this 12 months, the United States Coast Guard requested in its price range a single long-range Gulfstream V jet estimated to value $50 million to switch an growing old one utilized 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,” performing commandant of the Coast Guard, Kevin Lunday, stated in May.

He added {that a} new plane was important “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 transfer one other instance of Noem’s lavish spending habits at taxpayer expense, notably amid the federal government shutdown. It stays unclear the place the funding got here from.

Representatives Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and Lauren Underwood of Illinois, the highest Democrat overseeing its homeland safety panel, requested 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 12 months, Republicans included about $25 billion in new funding for the Coast Guard, together with about $2.3 billion for “procurement and acquisition of rotary-wing aircraft.”

This week, Noem stated she was utilizing a few of these funds to make sure Coast Guard members didn’t miss a paycheck through the present authorities shutdown, The Times reported.

Noem’s spending as South Dakota governor additionally drew consideration, based on The Sioux Falls Argus Leader who reported in 2021 that she spent $68,000 in taxpayer cash to redecorate the governor’s mansion. And South Dakota taxpayers additionally coated about $150,000 in Noem’s private and political journey prices, the Associated Press reported again in March.

The Independent has reached out to DHS for remark.