CNN By Priscilla Alvarez, Ryan Browne and Sarah Westwood 2/9/2020
The Defense Department, under White House pressure, is expected to announce this week that billions more in Pentagon funds will go toward the border wall, according to an administration official.
While the White House is poised to ask for less money for the wall in the upcoming formal budget request to Congress, the administration appears to be increasingly relying on Pentagon funds to meet its goal of constructing additional barriers on the border. The Trump administration has argued that it does not need congressional approval to redirect military funds to the border wall.
The budget proposal, expected to be released this week, requests just $2 billion for the construction of a wall. Last year, the White House initially asked for $5 billion, which it did not get from Congress. It has asked for as much as $8.6 billion in prior requests.
While the number in the coming budget is lower than what the Trump administration has requested previously, it is still higher than what lawmakers have provided for wall funding in the past. The spending deal struck by Congress in December kept wall funding at the same level -- less than $1.4 billion -- that was set aside for the wall the previous year.
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https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/09/politics/border-wall-funding-budget-white-house/index.html
