Washington D.C. – During today’s U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing for Kristi Noem, the President-elect’s choice for Secretary of the Homeland Security Department failed to quell concerns over her history of abusing power for her own benefit, broken relations with Native Americans, and woeful lack of homeland security credentials. 

“Kristi Noem has experience staging phony political stunts like misappropriating South Dakota National Guard Troops to Texas to stoke anti-immigrant fear, while she has destroyed relations with Native American tribes in her own state. The Governor has experience abusing taxpayer resources for her personal benefit and fabricating meetings with world leaders. What Noem doesn’t have is relevant experience in national security matters, which, on top of her issues of character and conflicts of interest, make for a uniquely unqualified nominee to protect Americans from homeland threats, including terrorism. Today, Noem failed to assuage any of these concerns,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. 

Conflict with Native American Tribes

  • How will Noem repair her contentious relationship with Native American tribes? The Department of Homeland Security maintains relations with tribes in the United States, including a tribal government affairs team, a tribal advisory council, and a tribal homeland security grant program. Alarmingly, all nine of South Dakota’s indigenous tribes voted to ban Noem from their lands, preventing her from stepping foot on 12% of the land in South Dakota. Noem has repeatedly clashed with tribes in her state, including her claim that tribal leaders were profiting off drug cartels in South Dakota and prioritizing cartels over parenting children on their reservations when she threatened to sue to prevent the implementation of COVID-19 safety protocols. 

Conflicts of Interest

  • Does Noem Intend to Divest From Ethanol Exporter That Could Benefit From DHS Actions?  An Accountable.US analysis found Noem’s family has tens of thousands of dollars in investments in Granite Falls Energy—a “fuel-grade ethanol, distillers’ grains, and crude corn oil” company that exports ethanol and other products on the international market—that could benefit from Noem’s control of DHS.

    Specifically, Granite Falls Energy LLC is invested in a controversial multi-billion dollar carbon dioxide pipeline likely to be overseen by DHS’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and could qualify for federal carbon sequestration payments. And the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees exports, controls border crossings that affect the biofuels industry, and administers potential new tariffs on ethanol. If confirmed, Noem could be in the position to reduce inspections on export shipments and block new tariffs. 

Blocked the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

  • Why did Noem oppose the VAWA and inclusion of tribal courts in VAWA? How will she protect women, and Native American women in particular, from domestic violence? The Department of Homeland Security works to combat gender-based violence and address the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous people. Yet in 2013, then-U.S. Rep. Noem voted against a version of the Violence Against Women Act that would recognize expanded tribal law enforcement and blocked VAWA again in 2018. Noem reportedly spoke out against the inclusion of tribal provisions and criticized “unnecessary polarizing language” in the Senate version, which included acknowledgment that Native American women are victimized by non-natives on reservations.

A pattern of abuse of power

  • Does Noem believe it’s appropriate for elected officials to use their official power to help family members get jobs and use government resources and influence to help families or benefactors?  As governor of South Dakota, Noem repeatedly accused of misusing state resources and influence. A South Dakota ethics board found sufficient information that you may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her family members’ real estate appraiser license application. Noem’s use of a state plane “blurred the lines between official travel and attending either family or political events,” prompting a state investigation

Politics over leadership

  • Did Noem choose to prioritize her national political ambitions over a disaster in her state? Amid historic flooding that left homes and businesses in South Dakota in ruins, Noem chose not to deploy the National Guard to assist. Noem said, “We have to be wise about how we use our soldiers.” Meanwhile, Noem was “traveling during a critical point in the disaster” to support President Trump at an out-of-state event. Previously, Noem spent millions of taxpayer dollars to deploy the Guard to the US-Mexico border, which Trump later cited as one of his reasons to nominate her. 

Governance challenges

  • Why did Noem have great difficulty maintaining staff and will she face the same problems at DHS? Noem has faced criticism relating to staffing issues in the governor’s office. After a fifth chief of staff departed Noem’s office, the Governor struggled to find a replacement, leaving the office without a chief of staff for over a year.

Lack of experience

  • How can Americans be sure Noem is prepared to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security given her minimal experience in federal homeland security policy? During Noem’s time in Congress, she never served on the Homeland Security Committee. In an apparent effort to fluff her national security credentials, in her book Noem described meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during her time in Congress and canceling a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron last year. The anecdotes both proved to be false.

Project 2025 connections

  • Does Noem agree with Project 2025’s plans for DHS and think law enforcement officers in the United States would be better served by having less training and resources? Noem’s staff member, Mark Miller, was a Project 2025 contributor. Project 2025’s plans for gutting the Department of Homeland Security include cutting several offices, including the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) which train federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officers. 

###

 

back to top