Pentagon pulls money from overseas projects to pay for border wall

[riversedge]

Source: POLITICO




The move drew an angry response from Democrats, who say the administration is "trampling" on Congress' power of the purse.
Mark Esper


04/28/2020 04:27 PM EDT


Defense Secretary Mark Esper is restoring more than half a billion dollars in funding for military construction projects in the U.S. that were put on hold to help fund President Donald Trump's border wall, and instead will take money from projects that are primarily overseas.

The move, which is laid out in a memo dated Monday and obtained by POLITICO, drew an angry response from Democrats, who say the administration is "trampling" on Congress' power of the purse.



Altogether, $545.5 million in previously withheld funds, all for projects in the U.S. with award dates in 2020, will be allowed to move forward.

"To enable the execution of certain projects scheduled for award in calendar year 2020, I direct you to release funding associated with 22 currently deferred projects within the United States totaling $545.526 million," Esper wrote in the memo to acting Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker.

Esper removed 22 projects from the list of border-related deferrals, all of which have award dates in 2020. Of these, $160 million is for two projects at West Point, where Trump is slated to speak at commencement ceremonies. Another $62.6 million is for a middle school project at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is up for reelection in November.

To fill the hole left by restoring the $545.5 million, Esper proposes in his memo to substitute a new set of about 19 projects totaling an equal amount. Most of these projects are overseas and were funded by Congress from fiscal 2020 Overseas Contingency Operations appropriations outside the military base budget. The projects are in countries such as Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain and Jordan................................

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/28/pentagon-money-border-wall-216156

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JUST STEP YOUR BIG BOOT ON ME MR. TRUMP SAYS THE @gop CONGRESS!!


#Republicans are fine with #Trump walking all over them. Pentagon pulls money from overseas projects to pay for border wall https://politi.co/35bpVvY The move drew an angry response from Democrats, who say the administration is "trampling" on Congress' power of the purse.

Link to tweet

?s=20

Defense Secretary Mark Esper. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

[riversedge]

1. ..Trump so far has siphoned nearly $10 billion from the defense budget for the border using unobliga

...........Trump so far has siphoned nearly $10 billion from the defense budget for the border using unobligated military construction funds and other accounts.

The Pentagon in February reprogrammed $3.8 billion from fighter jets, shipbuilding and National Guard equipment accounts for the border wall. Using money from weapons accounts already appropriated by Congress also drew the ire of some Republicans on Capitol Hill.

[rockfordfile]

2. Lock trump up

[riversedge]

3. we need the Repugs to even begin to bring that wish to fruitation. but they are

hiding someplace under the bridges.

[jmowreader]

4. We can put an end to this bullshit in very short order next term

If we have both houses of Congress and the White House, and we have ended the filibuster, we pass a budget for the entire government with one line: “$2,000 billion Hades funding.” There won’t be a budget for each agency, and there won’t be any line-item fund cites. Just “Hades funding” to absorb the entire discretionary budget of the US Government.

When the GOP asks what that is, we simply tell them, “We are going to give the entire federal budget to the president so he can spend it on whatever the hell he wants. And before you say one fucking word, you were perfectly fine with Donald Trump doing the same shit.”

If the Republican peabrains would like to help us clean up the mess they helped to cause, we will CONSIDER reinstating line-item budgeting. Two or three years from now. And only if we get rid of a lot of Republican pet projects.

[Orrex]

5. This headline could be more succinctly and accurately stated as:

Trump is an Idiot Racist Fuckhead.

[gab13by13]

6. It's not a wall, it's a fence.

[Talitha]

7. And the wind can blow it down. And people can cut through it. And make a game of scaling it.

[Polybius]

8. The part that fell had just been set

The safety stands were removed way too soon.

[cstanleytech]

9. Every penny stolen should be a penny that is deducted from the next defense budget.