By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democrats in Congress on Saturday criticized the Trump administration’s decision to buy two Gulfstream G700 jets for $172 million during the ongoing government shutdown that are to be used by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other senior leaders.
The U.S. Coast Guard entered into a sole-source contract on Friday, according to a government contracting website. The jets will be used for the Coast Guard’s Long Range Command Control fleet of aircraft.
DHS said in a statement late Friday that the new jets are needed because it currently relies on a Gulfstream CG-101 G550 jet that is over 20 years old, outside of the aircraft’s service life “and well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft.”
The department said it would not allow the federal shutdown “to slow down this process” of replacing the jet, but Democrats want to know where the money is coming from.
“Your first priority should be to organize, train and equip a Coast Guard that is strong enough to meet today’s mission requirements. Instead, it appears your first priority is your own comfort,” Democratic Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Lauren Underwood wrote in a letter to Noem.
This week, DHS said it would pay more than 70,000 sworn police officers, including TSA air marshals but not the 50,000 TSA security personnel that operate airport checkpoints.
Representative Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, called for a probe of the purchase. “Such spending is blatantly immoral — and probably illegal — and Congress must investigate,” Thompson said in a statement on Saturday.
Thompson said Congress rejected a DHS request for a $50 million jet earlier this year. He noted Coast Guard service members are using some mission-critical aircraft dating back to the 1980s.
Bloomberg Government first reported the planned purchases earlier.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft)
