Republicans on the Senate Armed Forces Committee are demanding to know why the U.S. is spending $130,000 a day — over $47 million a year — to store and maintain unused border wall panels at the border with Mexico.
The GOP lawmakers made their demand in a letter Wednesday to the Defense Department, Fox News reported. The Republican committee members used details provided to them in a request for information to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
In the letter the senators wrote to Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, they said, "Many of us have toured the southern border, and we have seen firsthand how vulnerable this administration's border policies have made our nation. Today we write because are disturbed to learn the Department of Defense is paying private landowners to store border wall materials procured under the Trump Administration instead of fortifying the southern border with those materials.
"At present, over 20,000 border wall sections, otherwise known as bollard panels, lie unused at 20 project sites across southern Arizona and New Mexico. Every day, the Department of Defense pays $130,000 to store, maintain, and secure these materials. Since you were sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs a year ago, you have allowed the Department to pay over $47 million to store these panels. The Department of Defense should not be incurring these daily charges but should be using these funds to bolster national security.
"In a highly dangerous security environment for the United States, every dollar Congress authorizes for the Department of Defense should be used effectively. This failing program clearly misses that standard."
The letter was signed by ranking member, Sen Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, along with nearly all Republicans on the panel.
In communications with the committee, the USACE said the cancellation of the border wall contracts by President Joe Biden in 2021 "left a variety of excess materials" and the "total costs to store, maintain, and secure all the materials across all sites is estimated to be approximately $130,000 per day," according to Fox News.
In April, 2022, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had said DHS had spent $72 million in costs just to shut down construction of former President Donald Trump's border wall. He made his comments during a House Appropriations DHS subcommittee hearing.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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