Republicans in Congress are growing increasingly concerned about how contracts were handled at the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem’s leadership. Their investigation into the matter includes one of Corey Lewandowski’s advisers.
Lewandowski has served as “special government employee” under Noem, reportedly wielding outsized power over the agency’s operations. Kara Voorhies, a contractor who worked closely with Lewandowski as a senior adviser at the agency, is now under scrutiny as well. She has become a subject of congressional Republicans’ inquiry into Noem and Lewandowski’s handling of federal contracts, one source familiar with the investigation told NOTUS.
Voorhies played an outsized role in reviewing DHS contracts, sometimes preventing certain contracts from advancing for final sign-off, three sources with knowledge of the contracting process told NOTUS, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Voorhies’ contract with DHS ended this week, a source familiar with the situation told NOTUS, and was not renewed.
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Republicans’ interest in Voorhies spilled out publicly last week, when Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called her out by name on the Senate floor in a speech criticizing Noem’s management of DHS and questioning the role Lewandowski has played in contract review.
“I have reason to believe that DHS has delegated responsibilities of the [Federal Emergency Management Agency] administrator to an outside contractor, who is Kara Voorhies. What is her official role in DHS?” Tillis said on the Senate floor in a speech now in the Congressional Record.
Noem’s policies around federal contracts have sparked outrage from both Democrats and Republicans; her policy mandating she review every DHS contract worth $100,000 or over created a backlog at the agency, preventing states from accessing long-awaited funds. At one point, Republican Sens. Ted Budd and Tillis put a hold on all DHS nominees until Noem agreed to release FEMA relief money for North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene.
Voorhies and Karen Evans, now FEMA’s acting administrator, worked closely together to review contracts worth $100,000 or over before the contracts were sent to Noem’s desk for review, two sources familiar with the process told NOTUS.
Evans and Voorhies spearheaded the review of FEMA contracts, two sources told NOTUS. Evans required that contracts have a named vendor — identifying the company that would be paid by FEMA — before it went to DHS for review, one source said.
“They reviewed everything. They required memos to be rewritten over and over, and if they didn’t want something approved, they didn’t send it to DHS,” that person said.
Dozens of FEMA staff were sometimes required to manage the review process. Three sources familiar with the situation also said it is common knowledge that Voorhies had a close connection to Lewandowski.
Voorhies is not listed on FEMA’s organizational charts. It is not clear who appointed her.
DHS and Voorhies did not respond to NOTUS’ requests for comment.
Reached for comment, Lewandowski told NOTUS to “direct all your inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security, they’re the ones who communicate with the media.”
In late February, Trump announced that Noem would be stepping down at the end of March from her post as DHS secretary. The announcement came shortly after Republican Sen. John Kennedy aggressively questioned her about how a company close to Noem benefitted from a $220 million DHS advertising contract.
The glitzy ad, which was ostensibly intended to promote DHS, featured Noem riding a horse in chaps and a cowboy hat and had little focus on the agency’s immigration agenda.
Noem insisted during her hearing testimony that President Donald Trump approved of the contract. Two days later, Trump announced that she would be leaving DHS to become the special envoy for a new security initiative called “The Shield of the Americas — Western Hemisphere.”
The Republican-led House Homeland Security Committee is conducting investigations into DHS under Noem and Lewandowski, the New York Post first reported Thursday.
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