The Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million starting last fall on a no-bid contract for 10 used airplanes that it said were urgently needed for deportation flights, but the fleet has seen little use and is now the subject of new Senate scrutiny. Three of the aircraft were luxury business jets and seven were older Boeing 737 passenger jets, with internal documents previously showing staffing shortfalls and prolonged parking in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Patty Murray of Washington, the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the ranking member on the Homeland Security Subcommittee, asked incumbent Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for contracts, retrofitting and missionization records, lifecycle cost analyses, flight logs and the legal basis for the purchases by Aug. 26. Their letter also seeks agreements tied to a G650 leased to the FBI and a Boeing 737-8 MAX business jet loaned to the Defense Department, while questioning whether the planes were used as a private jet service for Trump administration officials. The contract went to Northern Virginia-based Daedalus Aviation Corporation, whose chairman had donated to a political committee supporting previous Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and DHS and Noem's spokesperson have given conflicting accounts of whether the deal was approved before or finalized after Mullin was sworn in.