Coast Guard awards $172M no-bid contract for two Gulfstream G700 jets for DHS Secretary Noem and leadership

On October 17, 2025, the U.S. Coast Guard approved a no-bid contract to purchase two Gulfstream G700 private jets for use by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other senior DHS leadership, at a total estimated cost between $172 million and $200 million. The contract was awarded during a government shutdown that had suspended other federal services. House Appropriations Democrats Rosa DeLauro and Lauren Underwood, citing a Washington Post report, noted that DHS had previously sought funding for a single aircraft at a projected cost of approximately $50 million; the no-bid purchase of two jets at four times that figure bypassed the competitive bidding process required under federal procurement law.

Competitive procurement requirements exist to protect taxpayers from inflated costs and to prevent officials from steering contracts for personal benefit. The contract drew immediate congressional criticism: DeLauro and Underwood alleged the purchase was made to personally benefit Noem and characterized it as an improper use of Coast Guard acquisition authority. Military Times and the Washington Post both reported that the aircraft were intended primarily for use by DHS leadership on official travel, rather than serving Coast Guard operational missions.

The Standing records this as an instance of procurement abuse — awarding a luxury travel contract without competitive bidding, at multiples of the projected cost — and as self-dealing, where a Cabinet official used government procurement authority to acquire high-end personal travel infrastructure during a shutdown that reduced services to the public. The contract was approved the same week the government shutdown began, underscoring the selective prioritization of Cabinet convenience over statutory process.

Updates

2026-07-20 — White House retained one Noem jet for cabinet, Melania Trump office use [4, 5, 6]

Following Noem's March 2026 ouster as DHS Secretary, DHS officials expected the leased Gulfstream G700 jet's purchase to be shelved, but the Trump White House instead decided to retain it, removing it from DHS control for use by other cabinet secretaries and First Lady Melania Trump's office, according to The Wall Street Journal.

2026-08-13 — No-bid jet purchases grew to $464 million for 10 planes, most left idle [7, 8, 9]

Reporting citing internal DHS documents established that the no-bid jet procurement was far larger than the original $172–200 million purchase: DHS ultimately spent $464 million on 10 used jets, purchased through a no-bid contract with Daedalus Aviation Corporation, a Virginia firm whose chairman had donated to a political action committee headed by Noem. Seven of the planes, older Boeing 737s, sat parked at an airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana for months because DHS lacked staff to operate them, despite the purchases having been justified as urgently needed for the administration's deportation flights. Senate Appropriations Committee Democrats wrote DHS on August 12, 2026 saying the agency appeared to be "running an in-house private jet service" and demanding a full accounting; DHS has instead loaned or leased several of the jets to other agencies, including one to the FBI for Director Kash Patel's use.