Homeland Security Secretary Reviewing Contracts Signed by Predecessor

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told a House panel he is reviewing some contracts pursued by his predecessor Kristi Noem that may have had ties to her allies and promised to turn over a list of all those that have been nixed. The comment came under questioning from Rep.

), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, noting both purchases of warehouses as well as an expensive ad campaign featuring Noem, with the contracts to produce it going to companies connected to her.

"We know warehouses have been bought for two [or] three times their appraised value. It's in the public record. There are a lot of other things. A $200 million public ad featuring horses, the secretary riding horses.

That's grifting, that's wasting money that could go on the core mission of the agency," Thompson said. Mullin said he can't nullify contracts that were already approved but said some contracts are already under review by the DHS inspector general office, while his office has held off on approving others during further review.

"We are looking at the contracts that weren't already signed, and we did go through and cancel most of those," Mullin said.

"On the contracts, we stopped the contracts moving forward on some of the stuff that wasn't already signed.