R&I – TxPAT ***
Task & Purpose
January 21, 2021
President Joe Biden has ordered the Pentagon to stop funding the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In a proclamation released on Wednesday, Biden officially ended the declaration of emergency on the southern border that former President Donald Trump invoked in February 2019, which allowed the Pentagon to divert funding, including money originally intended for construction projects on military bases.
Further showing how much things have changed since Biden was sworn in on Wednesday, the link on the White House’s website to Trump’s emergency declaration now appears to be broken.
“It shall be the policy of my administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall,” Biden announced. “I am also directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to construct a southern border wall.”
Since 2019, the Pentagon has defunded military construction projects; sacrificed new ships and planes; raided money that was meant to equip Afghan security forces; and used transferred money from unused Army enlistment bonuses into its counter-narcotics funds — all to pay for hundreds of miles of barriers along the southwestern border.
Last February, the Pentagon told Congress that it was also taking $1.3 billion that was supposed to pay for new equipment for the National Guard to help fund the border wall.
Now Biden has ordered the secretaries of defense and homeland security to pause work on the border wall and suspend funding for the wall’s construction pending a review into the legality of the contracts awarded for the project and how it has been paid for.
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Bugs Marlowe