Trump’s Border Wall

Pentagon to Divert Money From 127 Projects to Pay for Trump’s Border Wall

Sept. 3, 2019

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will delay or suspend 127 military construction projects so that $3.6 billion can be diverted to shore up President Trump’s border wall, Defense Department officials said Tuesday.

Pentagon officials on Tuesday began notifying congressional representatives from areas that house the affected projects, and the decision to divert the funding prompted outcry from Democrats over what they viewed as a violation of Congress’s authority to set spending.

The move is part of President Trump’s declaration in February of a national emergency in order to gain access to billions of dollars that Congress refused to give him to build a wall along the border with Mexico. After losing a battle with lawmakers over that funding — a fight that led to a partial government shutdown — the president argued that the flow of drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants from Mexico constitutes a national security threat that justified using the military without specific approval from lawmakers.

Defense Department officials declined to publicly identify the affected projects until lawmakers had been notified, but they said that about half of the $3.6 billion would be taken from planned military construction projects overseas. The remainder would come from planned projects in the United States.