DHS Spent $220 Million on Ads Featuring Kristi Noem. Both Parties Grilled Her About It in the Senate.

Noem faced tough questions about an ad campaign that secretly awarded millions to a company with close ties to the homeland security secretary.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem was grilled by Republicans and Democrats alike over $220 million in taxpayer-funded contracts for an advertising campaign that prominently features the secretary herself. The no-bid contracts circumvented the normal competitive process and were secretly awarded to a company with close ties to Noem and her political operations. 

Republican Sen. John Kennedy from Louisiana pushed the secretary during the hearing on the fiscal responsibility and wisdom of spending taxpayer money on the ads that greatly enhanced Noem's name recognition, such as this one obtained by ProPublica featuring her on horseback at Mount Rushmore. Noem testified that the campaign is meant to tell undocumented immigrants to leave the country or face deportation and was signed off on by President Donald Trump. But Kennedy said it was hard for him to believe that Trump or those at the Office of Management and Budget would have agreed to this kind of campaign. 

Noem also asserted that the contracts were bid out to multiple companies. "My research shows you did not bid them out," said Kennedy, who then outlined how one of the two recipients, Safe America Media, was formed just 11 days before being awarded the nearly $143 million contract. "Most of the money," according to Kennedy, was then subcontracted to the Strategy Group, a company whose CEO is married to Noem's former spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin. The company, led by Ben Yoho, also played a large part in Noem's 2022 North Dakota gubernatorial campaign, according to ProPublica, which reported on the ad contracts in November. 

"It troubles me," Kennedy continued, "that a fifth to a quarter-billion dollars of taxpayer money, when we're scratching for every penny, and we're fighting over recision packages…I just can't agree with." 

Later during the hearing, Democratic Sen. Peter Welch from Vermont, who called for an investigation into the multimillion-dollar ad campaign last year, also questioned Noem. "I don't want to question what the purpose was, but how the award was made," said Welch, who pointed to a document from the DHS used to justify the no-bid contracts made to Safe America Media, and the second recipient, People Who Think. According to the government's official spending data website, each of these contracts listed "urgency" as the rationale under "other than full and open competition," and listed "Office of Public Affairs" as the funding office—an office that was, until recently, led by McLaughlin.

"As an administrator who has fiscal responsibility over a huge budget," Welch continued, "do you realistically think that a company that was created 11 days before they got a $143 million is in a position to execute on [that] contract?" 

Throughout her testimony, Noem repeatedly denied her involvement in the selection of the contract recipients, despite telling Kennedy that she evaluates and looks at any contract made over $5 million, and said she does not have the legal authority to look into subcontractors. Noem also touted her agency saving the taxpayers over $13.2 billion by evaluating and negotiating contracts and "canceling ones that aren't necessary to do our duties." 

But clearly, the depth of ties between Noem, McLaughlin, and the Strategy Group has not gone unnoticed. And the decision to circumvent an open bidding process meant to ensure accountability, prevent corruption, and protect taxpayer money is highly suspect.