Hundreds of military construction projects around the nation and the globe are at risk of delay or cancellation because of President Trump’s national emergency over his border wall, according to the Pentagon.
From $41 million for repairs to a heating system at Eielson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks, Alaska, to $17 million for a crash rescue station at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida, planned money could instead go to build a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump promised hundreds of times during his campaign that he would force Mexico to pay for his border wall, but has not made that request to Mexican officials even once since taking office.
Some of the projects on the list that are at risk:
- $31 million for a mission training complex at East Camp Grafenwoehr, Germany
- $50 million for a rotary wing apron at Wheeler Army Air Field in Hawaii
- $16 million for a railcar holding area for Crane Army Ammunition Plant in Indiana
- $53 million for a UAV hangar for Kunsan Air Base in Korea
- $40 million for a information systems complex at White Sands, New Mexico
- $95 million for an engineering center at the U.S. Military Academy
The Pentagon list outlines nearly $12.9 billion in projects across the military services that were unawarded as of Dec. 31.
The bulk of money is concentrated in the last two fiscal years — nearly $6.8 billion for projects in the current 2019 fiscal year and nearly $4.3 billion for fiscal 2018.
Lawmakers in both parties are dyspeptic over potentially raiding the defense budget for a border wall — a move they fear will hurt military readiness just as it’s being rebuilt.
In a statement Monday, Reed called the move by Trump “a slap in the face to our military.”
“He is planning to take funds from real, effective operational priorities and needed projects and divert them to his vanity wall,” Reed said.
Trump aims to tap $3.6 billion in unobligated military construction funds for his signature border wall and is separately seeking to raid a Pentagon counternarcotics account for still more money.
The Pentagon says it won’t raid military housing and other projects that have been awarded or with fiscal 2019 award dates.
“The pool of potential military construction projects from which funding could be reallocated to support the construction of border barrier are solely projects with award dates after September 30, 2019,” the Pentagon said.
Trump’s newly released fiscal 2020 defense budget proposes $7.2 billion in emergency funding for the southern border, evenly split between new barriers and replenishing military construction projects that Trump is aiming to raid.
Shanahan, who took over in January after the abrupt resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, defended the move last week on Capitol Hill, telling the Senate Armed Services the border funding “will not come at the expense of our people, our readiness, or our modernization.”
But Reed and other Democrats slammed Shanahan for not giving Congress specifics on what projects might be on the chopping block as lawmakers voted on a resolution to terminate the emergency.
“I feel completely sandbagged,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Shanahan. “You’re going to send it to us … after the vote on the emergency declaration. Members of the Senate are entitled to know from where these MilCon monies will be pulled.”
The House and Senate approved a resolution to nullify the emergency declaration, but Trump quickly vetoed the measure.
The House is set to vote next week on overriding Trump’s veto, but the effort is expected to fall short.
Trump did not start making wall funding an issue until Fox News and radio talk show hosts started ridiculing him last March for failing to deliver on his signature campaign promise.
Since then, he has swung frequently from claiming — falsely — that much of his wall is already under construction to claiming — also falsely — that record numbers of human traffickers, drug smugglers and common criminals are entering the country at points along the border where there is no physical barrier.
Multiple lawsuits have also been filed in hopes of blocking Trump’s emergency declaration — the first such national emergency in the 43 years of the law’s existence that attempts to overrule a policy and funding choice that was specifically made by Congress.