Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — Republican John Kennedy included — grilled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over her oversight of agency spending during a Tuesday hearing, implying at points that Noem had steered lucrative contracts to political allies.

Kennedy questioned the agency’s decision to spend $220 million in taxpayer dollars on an immigration enforcement-focused ad campaign in which Noem herself is featured prominently.

"I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth. It’s just hard for me to believe, knowing the president, as I do, that you said, 'Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut, and I’m going to spend $220 million running them,' that he would have agreed to that," Kennedy said. "I don't think Russ Vought" at the Office of Management and Budget "would have agreed to that," he added.

Kennedy went on to question the fairness of the bidding process for the contract, pointing out that part of the contract was awarded to a political firm tied to Republican political consultant Ben Yoho, the husband of former DHS spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin. Noem maintained in her testimony that she was not involved in the contract approval process and insisted that the subcontract was awarded after a competitive bid process.

Noem also insisted that the ads were effective in spreading the word about the administration's deportation efforts, thereby reducing illegal immigration. "It was effective in increasing your name recognition," Kennedy shot back.

Senator Peter Welch (D., Vt.) grilled Noem about a $143 million no-bid contract that was awarded to an entity established just eleven days before the contract was awarded. Part of that $143 million was then subcontracted to Yoho's strategy firm.

Noem responded by insisting that neither she, nor any political appointees, were involved in awarding the contract.

While most Senate Republicans on the committee used their time to praise Noem's tenure and highlight the Trump administration's success in stemming the flow of illegal immigration, Kennedy was joined in criticizing Noem by North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis, who accused the secretary of prioritizing the optics of sheer deportation numbers, rather than focusing on public safety threats.

Tillis is retiring at the end of his term and used Tuesday's hearing to reiterate his call for Noem's resignation. He also threatened to stall legislation and hold nominations if Noem does not respond to his office's inquiries over a DHS operation in his home state.

"Why am I disappointed with Secretary Noem? Because we’re not going after enough people who did this damage at the expense of running numbers that Stephen Miller wants out of the White House," he yelled at one point during the hearing. "We just want numbers. We want 1,000 a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day, because numbers matter, right? No, they don’t matter. Quality matters, not quantity, quality."

"And what we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership," he added.

Tillis also raised a section of Noem's recently published memoir in which she describes killing a badly behaved dog, citing the incident as an example of her strong leadership qualities.

"You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested in the appropriate time for training it and then you have the audacity to go and into a book and say it's a leadership lesson!" Tillis said.

Tuesday's contentious hearing comes as Congress struggles to negotiate an end to the DHS shutdown. Congressional Republicans funded U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement through 2029 via last year's reconciliation bill, meaning the ongoing shutdown is not expected to significantly halt the administration's immigration enforcement operations.

Senate Judiciary Democrats used their allotted questioning time to highlight specific cases of alleged immigration enforcement officer misconduct, accuse the department of racially profiling deportation targets, and probe the secretary about department enforcement and contract policies. Democrats also tore into Noem for her response to two officer-involved fatal shootings in Minneapolis.

“Is it so hard to say you were wrong and issue a retraction?” ranking Senate Judiciary Committee member Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) asked Noem at the top of the hearing regarding her decision to characterize Alex Pretti as a domestic terrorist so quickly after the shooting.

The department remains under intense scrutiny in the wake of the Minneapolis surge, and a damning Wall Street Journal report last month about special government employee Corey Lewandowski's prominent role overseeing intra-department operations as Noem's top adviser. Many DHS staffers tuned into the hearing to hear the secretary's Tuesday testimony, a DHS staffer told National Review.

At the top of the hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley reminded Noem that special government employees are limited to 130 days per year of government work, and asked the secretary whether she has ensured that all SGE personnel "follow all laws, rules and regulations as intended?” That question followed recent reporting in the Wall Street Journal and other outlets that Lewandowski has avoided swiping into the building every day to prolong his SGE status.

"Yes sir, they have career officials at the Department of Homeland Security that track that data, and they’ve all followed the laws and the rules regarding special government employees," Noem responded.

Noem will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.