The Department of Homeland Security, now led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin, on Wednesday reversed a policy put in place by former Secretary Kristi Noem that required the secretary to approve contracts and grants worth more than $100,000. There were thousands of contracts in this range.
The directive lifts the requirement across all DHS components, including its major immigration enforcement agencies: U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a statement to CBS News, DHS said Mullin “re-evaluated the contract processes to make sure DHS is serving the American taxpayer efficiently.”
“Today, the Secretary rescinded the $100,000 contract review memo,” DHS added. “This will streamline the contract process and empower components to carry out their mission to protect the homeland and make America safe again.”
A Homeland Security official said contracts worth more than $25 million would still be reviewed by the secretary.
Congressional Democrats found that by late September last year, Noem’s personal approval provision had delayed over a thousand Federal Emergency Management contracts alone.
DHS indicated that the department continued to be hampered by the partial government shutdown, calling on “Democrats to stop holding DHS hostage.” Congressional Democrats have declined to fully fund DHS — mainly ICE and CBP — unless the Trump administration agrees to make certain immigration enforcement reforms, including barring federal agents from wearing masks during operations.
While Transportation Security Agency officers and other DHS employees have been working without pay, law enforcement agents at CBP and ICE have not been directly affected by the shutdown, due to the billions of dollars the agencies received through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
Mullin alluded to the contract review change during his confirmation hearing earlier this month.
“I’m not a micromanager,” Mullin said when asked about Noem’s policy. “We put people in, we empower them to make decisions. What is required to come up to my level, we’ll make decisions.”
“We will have a very clear line of communication with every one of our agencies’ heads on their authority that you gave to them within their parameters, and we’ll discuss,” Mullin added, “but we’re also going to be very responsible for the taxpayer dollars.”
Mullin’s directive is one of several changes he’s expected to make at DHS. Since he was sworn in, ICE has also started reevaluating plans to convert warehouses throughout the U.S. into detention facilities to hold people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, DHS officials told CBS News.
Noem’s controversial memo, first signed on June 11, 2025, required the secretary to personally approve any DHS contract or grant above $100,000, inserting the secretary’s office into thousands of procurement decisions that had previously been handled below the Cabinet level. Acquisition officials warned at the time that the policy risked slowing down routine purchasing and urgent buys alike, especially during DHS’s busiest contracting period.
A department as large and operationally diverse as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security relies on contracts to carry out many of its core missions, with many of those agreements routinely exceeding $100,000. At U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, some of the largest contracts involve immigration detention, including agreements with private companies and local governments to operate facilities offering detention, security, medical care and transportation. U.S. Customs and Border Protection depends on contractors for border enforcement infrastructure such as surveillance aircraft, drones, sensors and vehicle fleets, as well as facility maintenance and logistics support.
At FEMA, the approval requirement had some of its most visible operational effects, according to congressional investigators and reporting. The delays affected a range of disaster-response functions, including housing inspections, temporary sheltering and crisis counseling, and slowed the distribution of aid tied to major events such as the July 2025 Texas floods and Hurricane Helene.
Last month, Democratic staff on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found that the directive created “extraordinary bureaucratic gridlock,” delaying or leaving pending 1,034 FEMA contracts, grants, or disaster-assistance awards as of September 8, 2025.
That review found that the average request took three weeks to approve, delaying assistance tied to the Texas flash floods, Hurricane Helene, housing inspections, temporary housing, crisis counseling and other disaster-response functions.
