The new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Markwayne Mullin, appears to want to eliminate the rule imposed by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, which requires the agency’s top brass to review any contract in excess of $100,000.

Internal documents, obtained by The Washington Post, indicate that Mullin would raise to $25 million the requirement that the DHS secretary must review every Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract.

Mullin made the announcement to ICE, but, during his confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate, he implied that he would generally distance himself from that Noem rule.

Puerto Rico officials - including the resident commissioner in Washington, Pablo José Hernández, and mayors - have continually complained that the requirement imposed by Noem, who was ousted a few weeks ago, delayed Puerto Rico’s construction projects.

DHS, for the time being, confirmed that Mullin is reviewing the agency’s “internal policies,” but has nothing to announce at this time surrounding that issue.

President Donald Trump impeached Noem after she was criticized in the Senate for a $200 million ad campaign that was further interpreted as a promotion for the former secretary.

Noem also faced harsh criticism for describing as “domestic terrorists” the two U.S. citizens who were killed by federal immigration agents while protesting ICE’s deployment to the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Hernandez has insisted on the “irrationality” of Noem’s directive, and said that several mayors have reported the problems it causes in the processing of reconstruction projects. He also warned that this is a general problem in states and territories.

In February, Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez, a Republican and pro-Trump, met with then-Secretary Noem to complain that FEMA was holding up reconstruction projects valued at $1.9 billion.

The projects were later released, but Gonzalez’s complaint - even though the funds were being held in Washington D.C. - may have cost then FEMA’s alternate coordinator for Puerto Rico Reconstruction, Andrés García Martinó, his job.

Of the $92.8 million in federal funds allocated to rebuild Puerto Rico following the 2017 hurricanes, 2020 earthquakes and COVID-19 pandemic, FEMA has been charged with $56.28 million, of which $25.68 million, or 45%, has been disbursed.