WASHINGTON—Acting Pentagon Chief Patrick Shanahan said on March 18 he had provided Congress with a list of projects from the military construction budget that could be cut back in order to help pay for a wall on the border with Mexico.
Last month Trump declared a national emergency in a bid to fund his promised wall at the United States-Mexico border without congressional approval.
The emergency declaration allows the Trump administration to use money from the military construction budget if needed.
Madison’s Truax Field on Pentagon list of projects that could be affected by border wall #news3now https://t.co/lGOM7P3QlO
— News 3 Now / Channel 3000 (@WISCTV_News3) March 19, 2019
Trump issued the first veto of his presidency on Friday to block a measure passed by Democrats and Republicans in Congress that would terminate his emergency declaration for a wall on the United States border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration and crime.
Speaking before the start of his meeting with his French counterpart, Shanahan was asked if he had sent the list of projects to Congress.
“I have,” Shanahan said.
The more than 20-page document seen by Reuters included all the projects that were not awarded funding as of Dec. 31, 2018.
The list includes a cemetery at the U.S. Military Academy in New York and a command and control facility at Camp Tango in South Korea.
It is essentially up to Congress to go through the list and figure out which projects will not be affected, including military housing, barracks, and projects that have already been awarded funding.
Here is the Pentagon’s list of construction projects that could be cut to fund a border wall https://t.co/ZUrKUTqg3B pic.twitter.com/VNLMFzmwYy
— Military Times (@MilitaryTimes) March 18, 2019
In a statement, the Pentagon said the pool of projects included was valued at about $12.9 billion. The Pentagon has said it could use about $3.6 billion from the military construction budget this year if needed.
The Defense Department has provided Congress with a list of military construction projects that could see their funding diverted — about $12.9 billion in total — to pay for a border wall under Trump’s declared national emergencyhttps://t.co/ACxn2yJkbV
— Axios (@axios) March 19, 2019
The issue was highlighted during a tense Congressional hearing on Thursday when Democratic Senators demanded that they be provided a list of military assets that could be impacted if funding was used to build a wall.
“We know President Trump wants to take money from our national security accounts to pay for his wall, and now we have a list of some of the projects and needed base repairs that could be derailed or put on the chopping block as a result,” Senator Jack Reed said in a statement.
The Pentagon’s list contains projects that require funding after September, putting them into the 2020 fiscal year. https://t.co/OFiivelJDx
— Delaware Online (@delawareonline) March 19, 2019