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Pentagon defers military cash to fund border wall
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US Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved the use of US$3.6 billion in funding from military construction projects to build 282 kilometers of US President Donald Trump鈥檚 wall along the Mexican border.
Pentagon officials would not say which 127 projects will be affected but they said half the money will come from military projects in the US, the rest from projects in other countries.
Esper鈥檚 decision on Tuesday fuels what has been a persistent controversy between the Trump administration and Congress over immigration policies and the funding of the border wall. And it sets up a debate for lawmakers, who refused earlier this year to approve US$6 billion for the wall but now must decide if they will refund projects being used to provide the money.
Elaine McCusker, the Pentagon comptroller, said the now-unfunded projects are not being canceled. Instead, the Pentagon is saying the military projects are being 鈥渄eferred.鈥
The Defense Department, however, has no guarantee from Congress that any of the money will be replaced and a number of lawmakers made it clear during the debate earlier this year they would not fall for budget trickery to build the wall.
鈥淚t is a slap in the face to the members of the Armed Forces who serve our country that President Trump is willing to cannibalize already allocated military funding to boost his own ego and for a wall he promised Mexico would pay to build,鈥 said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
He said the funding shift will affect the US Military Academy at West Point.
Congress approved US$1,375 billion for wall construction in this year鈥檚 budget, same as the previous year and far less than the US$5.7 billion that the White House sought. Trump grudgingly accepted the money to end a 35-day government shutdown in February but simultaneously declared a national emergency to take money from other government accounts, identifying up to US$8.1 billion for wall construction.
The transferred funds include US$600 million from the Treasury Department鈥檚 asset forfeiture fund, US$2.5 billion from Defense Department counterdrug activities and now the US$3.6 billion pot for military housing construction announced on Tuesday.
The Pentagon reviewed the list of military projects and said none that provided housing or critical infrastructure for troops would be affected, in the wake of recent scandals over poor living quarters for service members in several parts of the country. Defense officials also said they would focus on projects set to begin in 2020 and beyond, with the hope that the money could eventually be restored by Congress.
鈥淐anceling military construction projects at home and abroad will undermine our national security and the quality of life and morale of our troops, making America less secure,鈥 said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
The government will spend the military housing money on 11 wall projects in California, Arizona and Texas, the administration said in a filing on Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The most expensive is for 84 kilometers in Laredo, Texas, at a cost of US$1.27 billion.
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