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The Pentagon transferred $1 billion to Donald Trump’s US-Mexico border wall fund.
On Monday night, the Pentagon notified Congress that it authorized the transfer of $1 billion to begin the construction of Trump’s border wall, which will divide Mexico from the U.S. The money, which was taken from the military personnel account, is expected to build 57 miles of 18-foot- high fencing, improve roads and other elements along the southern border. According to the Department of Defense, the $1 billion was freed up after some service branches failed to meet their recruiting goals.
NN reports the Department of Defense have given the Army Corps of Engineers permission to start planning and the construction for the project.
According to a letter from acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan sent to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, the wall will travel along the Yuma and El Paso sections of the border. “Military construction on the border will not come at the expense of our people, our readiness, or our modernization,” Shanahan told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
This all comes after Trump declared the building of the wall a national emergency back in February. In Trump’s announcement, he ordered the use of counterdrug money to be used as part of the wall’s construction. Other funds will be taken from the military construction fund. Trump’s administration plans to add an additional $1.5 billion in funding in the future.
According to CNN, every Democratic senator on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittees on Defense and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies signed a letter written to Shanahan objecting to the $1 billion transfer of personnel funds to counter drug funds to go toward the wall. The senators said they were never notified, and never gave approval of the funds being transferred. “We strongly object to both the substance of the funding transfer, and to the Department implementing the transfer without seeking the approval of the congressional defense committees and in violation of provisions in the defense appropriation itself,” the senators wrote. “As a result, we have serious concerns that the Department has allowed political interference and pet projects to come ahead of many near-term, critical readiness issues facing our military.”
