Federal contracts are supposed to be competitive. When agencies invite companies to bid, they can compare prices and qualifications — and the public can see who gets the work.

There’s an exception for unusual and compelling urgency. If waiting would seriously harm the government, an agency can limit competition to a few potential contractors, or sometimes just one, but that’s meant for problems that can’t wait.

At the Department of Homeland Security, that exception has become a much bigger part of the way business gets done. In 2024, it covered less than 1% of the department’s contract spending. Through August of this year, it has covered nearly two-thirds, according to a New York Times analysis.

In the first half of fiscal 2026, DHS accounted for 92% of the $18.4 billion federal agencies obligated under the emergency exception, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Some of the contracts went to companies with little or no federal contracting experience: a startup was paid up to $915 million to help run the administration’s “self-deportation” effort, another was paid $464 million for a fleet of used planes and a newly formed company was hired to make ads starring then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The question is how those deals could be awarded with so little competition.

The question is how those deals could be awarded with so little competition and what Congress can do to make sure “emergency” means something again.

Several of those companies were new to federal work. Salus Worldwide Solutions, founded in 2023, had never held a federal contract before winning a $915 million deal to help run the administration’s “self-deportation” campaign. Lawmakers are investigating allegations that Corey Lewandowski, then a top adviser to Noem, asked contractors — including Salus — for payments. Salus and Lewandowski have denied any wrongdoing.

Salus’ founder, William Walters, also runs Daedalus Aviation. That company, which also had no federal contracting history, received $464 million to buy 10 used planes for DHS, including three luxury jets. Walters had donated $10,000 to a political group supporting Noem. Most of the planes have since sat parked, the Times reported.

The pattern extends beyond those two companies. Safe America Media was created just days before it won part of a $200 million DHS deal to produce ads featuring Noem. The agency said that Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border constituted “an unusual and compelling urgency” to bypass the usual bidding process.

Other agencies have used different routes to award contracts without competition. At the Department of Health and Human Services, a deal to provide lawyers for migrant children went to Our Rescue, a group founded by Tim Ballard, whose story inspired the controversial movie “Sound of Freedom.” Reporters have not found any prior experience at Our Rescue providing legal representation to migrant children on this scale. At the Pentagon, a memo directed officials to spend up to $244 million on Palantir, with few details about why the company was selected. Trump’s ballroom, with a contract worth up to $500 million, is being built under a separate arrangement.

These exceptions and loopholes leave little room for outside scrutiny. Agencies can declare an emergency themselves, keep the justification secret and face limited chances of a legal challenge. DHS, for example, declined to explain why it needed the planes, citing national security. When a competitor challenged the Salus award, a judge ruled it had no right to sue. The ballroom took a different route: the office overseeing the White House mansion is not required to seek competing bids, though a White House official said it “consistently executes contracts following the law.”

Officials argued that urgent deportation goals justified bypassing the normal process.

The administration has said speed is the point. DHS officials have argued that urgent deportation goals justified bypassing the normal process, and the department has credited its ad campaign with persuading millions of people to leave the country. But the emergency exception was designed for situations where waiting could cause serious harm — not as a shortcut around scrutiny whenever an agency has an ambitious goal.

Congress has several ways to tighten the rules. It could require an agency inspector general to approve large emergency contracts before the money is spent, instead of reviewing them after the fact. It could also require agencies to seek fresh approval when a contract’s price rises sharply, a problem government auditors flagged at DHS years ago.

To make the process visible, lawmakers could require agencies to publish their explanations within days. If a justification includes classified information, the agency could send it privately to congressional committees rather than withholding it from everyone.

Congress could also require an automatic review when a contract goes to a company formed shortly before it won the work. And it could give watchdog groups a way to challenge questionable awards in court, since rival companies may not always have standing to sue. A separate change could close the White House construction loophole by requiring major projects there to follow the same competition rules as other federal work.

The obstacle is political. Even if Democrats win one or both chambers in November, Trump could veto a new law, and they are unlikely to have the votes to override him. But Congress must pass spending bills to keep the government open. Attaching procurement changes to those bills could give the reforms a better chance of becoming law.

There are Republicans who have raised concerns, too. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana pressed Noem over the advertising contracts shortly before Trump fired her in March. Still, questions about individual deals have not yet changed the system that lets agencies declare their own emergencies.

The emergency rule was built for things like a burst water main at a national park. Now it’s paying for luxury jets and a ballroom. Whether that changes depends on whether Congress decides an emergency should have to be proved, not just declared.

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