Senators criticize Pentagon decision to divert military construction funds to Trump Border Wall

Puerto Rico was one of the hardest-hit countries in all US states and territories, with more than $ 400 million in funding for the construction of military projects deviated to the wall as part of the Pentagon plan .

Trump regularly played with Puerto Rican officials during his tenure after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Abroad, projects worth $ 771 million spread over several sites in Europe will be affected. These projects, including the modernization of aerodromes and parking areas in Eastern Europe, are intended to improve the defense of US allies against Russian threats.

"All these projects are important to us, but we must also respond to the urgency we were invited to intervene on the Southwest border," a senior US defense official said Wednesday.

"The projects on the list have either existing capacity or temporary solutions to mitigate the delays, all the projects on the list are important and we will work with the Congress to support them," said the official, adding that There was no "guarantee" that the money will actually be back filled.

Defense officials said on Wednesday that there was no guarantee that part of the money would be replaced for domestic or foreign projects. On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said the Defense Department would not solicit Congressional funds to replace the rescheduled funding for projects overseas.

Bipartisan critique

The Pentagon has informed individual lawmakers of the states that will be affected on Wednesday, prompting bipartisan criticism.

Republican senators from Utah, Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, voiced their concerns in a joint statement, after learning that military construction funds for Hill's airbase projects would be reprogrammed.

Specifically, they were told that $ 26 million was diverted from the Hill AFB Composite Aircraft Benchmarking Facility and $ 28 million from the Consolidated Mission Control Center of the AFB. 39, Utah Test and Training Range.

"In April, Senator Lee and I expressed our significant concerns to the Secretary of Defense regarding the potential misappropriation of funds for critical military construction projects in Utah," said Romney. "I am disappointed that, despite these concerns, the February 2019 emergency declaration delays two military construction projects with a total value of $ 54 million.

"Congress has yielded far too much power to the executive for decades and it is high time that it restore a proper balance of power between the three branches," Lee said. "We should start this process by adopting the ARTICLE ONE law, which would correct the imbalances caused by the national emergency law," added Lee.

In Virginia, the following projects will be affected:

"The president's decision to divert funds to support the interests of US national security so that he can build a border wall makes us less safe," Warner said in a statement. "By taking money out of our military – including funding to support critical projects here in Virginia – we will be less equipped to deal with threats here and abroad."

"I am deeply concerned by President Trump's plans to withdraw funds for projects critical to national security – including millions of dollars from important projects in Virginia – so that he can build his border wall. Being American troops is the primary responsibility of every commander in the military, yet the Commander-in-Chief is shirking this duty in order to advance his own political agenda, "Kaine added.

The West Point project is affected

New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who is the largest Democratic subcommittee of Senate military personnel, said Wednesday in a joint statement to the defense ministry that $ 160 million of funds allocated to a center of defense. engineering and at the US Military Academy at West Point would be reassigned.

"The US Military Academy at West Point was founded as a school of engineers designed for the leaders of our army to have access to the best resources and a better education enabling them to succeed in their military careers in defense of our country, "said Schumer. .

"Now we discover that the funds that Congress has earmarked for the design and construction of a state-of-the-art engineering center at West Point have been redirected to an expensive and inefficient wall on the southern border," added the leader of the senatorial minority.

Gillibrand said Trump "is now stealing money from West Point and 126 other military installations across the country to bypass Congress and build this pointless vanity project."

"The diversion of this defense funding eliminates mission-critical facilities, endangering our national security and limiting the ability of the army to compete with the country's most powerful adversaries," she wrote. .

Despite fighting for no plans in Arizona to be affected by the Pentagon's decision, Republican Senator Martha McSally said on Wednesday that construction of the Ft. Huachuca ground transportation equipment building would be deferred accordingly. The project costs $ 30 million, she said.

However, McSally sought to minimize the impact of the move on his country of origin, noting that "the only project affected in Arizona had already been delayed due to unforeseen environmental problems at the construction site".

"It is important to note that although funding for this project was authorized and assigned to fiscal year 19, there is no longer a project for fiscal year 19 because unforeseen environmental problems at the construction site, "she said.

"The Army had to carry out a major environmental remediation before the actual construction project could be awarded.At the earliest, this postponed the allocation in the summer of 2014. Cleaning environmental impact is expected to continue until August 2020, "McSally wrote.

The installation of space control loses funds

A space control facility at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado will also be affected, according to Democratic Senator Michael Bennet.

"President Trump's selfish decision to raid funding for military construction is a new weak point in his ridiculous quest for an election campaign.These projects, including the Space Control Facility at Peterson Air Force Base. , have been deemed critical by the Department of Defense and the Trump administration.Lending money to operational priorities to pay for a useless and ineffective wall is a blatant irresponsibility and an attack on our national security " he said in a statement.

Defense Department officials said 127 military construction projects were suspended in order to use the $ 3.6 billion to finance construction of 175 miles of wall on the southern border.

According to Pentagon spokesman Chris Mitchell, six of the eleven projects approved by the Secretary of Defense involved federal property, totaling approximately 94.5 miles, and five, non-federal property, totaling approximately 81 miles.

Four of the projects are located in Yuma, Arizona; two are in San Diego California; two others are in El Paso, Texas; and the final project is in Laredo, Texas, Mitchell said Wednesday.

Construction is expected to begin in approximately 135 days in areas where the federal government already owns the lands along the border, including the Barry M. Goldwater test field from the Arizona Department of Defense, according to the Assistant Deputy Secretary Defense, Elaine McCusker.

McCusker said that projects on private land could exceed 2020 due to land acquisition issues.

According to Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman, half of the money comes from projects reported abroad and the other half was scheduled for projects in the United States.

The money initially intended for projects abroad will be exploited first.