Neguse: Where is this company headquartered?
Noem: I don’t know.
Neguse: I don’t know either. We can’t find it. We did find an address that’s registered to a political operative. This company that received 143 million dollars was incorporated 8 days before this contract went… pic.twitter.com/wxRi9NJ7Lb
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 4, 2026
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem struggled to explain why her department awarded a $143 million advertising contract to a company formed just days earlier and with connections to a Republican political operative during a tense congressional hearing on Wednesday.
At a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) grilled Noem over the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to award lucrative no-bid contracts to Safe America Media, a little-known firm that produced a series of ads tied to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Reading from a DHS notice, Neguse noted that the department had identified only four companies out of “hundreds of thousands of companies in the United States” as potential candidates for the campaign.
“One of those is this Safe America Media Company. Where is Safe America Media headquartered?” Neguse asked.
“I don’t know,” Noem replied.
“I don’t know either, Madam Secretary,” the congressman replied. “We can’t find it. We can’t find a website. We did find an address that’s registered for this company. Do you know where that address is?”
“Is there a problem with this contract?” Noem complained.
“I’ll tell you about it!” Neguse replied, as the secretary continued to talk, prompting him to ask her to allow him to finish. “The company is registered to a political operative in Virginia. Do you know, just by way of example, whether this company, which received $143 million in taxpayers’ dollars, has it ever done work for the government before?”
“I don’t know,” Noem said.
Neguse shot back: “The answer is it has not! And do you know why we know that? Because it was incorporated 8 days before this contract went out!”
The congressman’s questioning came after reporting by ProPublica, which found the newly-formed company was paid millions by DHS between February and August 2025 for the ad campaign. The company, which had no track record of past federal work, shares an address linked to property owned by Republican political operative Michael McElwain.
Neguse continued: “You want the American people to believe that this is all above board? That $143 million of taxpayer money just happened to go to this one company that doesn’t have a headquarters, doesn’t have a website, has never done work for the federal government before, and is registered apparently or attached to a residence from a political operative, and of course one of the subcontractors of that contract, as you know, is a political firm that’s tied to, to you back when you were governor of South Dakota?”
“The reason why I ask these questions is because this is taxpayer money!” he added, warning her: “Eventually, the facts will become public in this regard.”
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