Senate Democrats Patty Murray and Chris Murphy have asked the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to investigate the department’s purchase of a 12-aircraft fleet, including Gulfstream business jets and Boeing 737s. The lawmakers want to know whether the roughly $464 million outlay was legally authorised and whether the aircraft were bought for executive travel and other non-core uses rather than essential departmental operations.
The fleet is described as four Gulfstreams and eight Boeings, though details vary across reporting. Murray and Murphy also requested contract terms, flight logs, lease arrangements, cost analyses and the legal basis for purchasing, operating and maintaining the aircraft, setting an Aug. 26 deadline for the material. The inquiry adds pressure on DHS spending oversight at a time when the aircraft could be used for travel linked to Trump administration officials, the FBI director and border-related missions.
The dispute centres on whether taxpayer funds were directed into roles that fall outside DHS’s core remit. It also raises appropriations questions over how the department justified buying, maintaining and operating a mixed fleet of private jets and narrowbody airliners for government use.