American Military News by Tara Copp - McClatchy Washington Bureau January 28, 2021
Congress is asking the Department of Defense to return billions of dollars that former President Donald Trump diverted from local military base construction projects to fund the border wall and was never spent.
President Joe Biden canceled the national emergency declaration that Trump and the Defense Department had used to justify shifting $3.6 billion from scores of domestic and overseas military construction projects. Those included a new fire station at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina and a new fire crash rescue station for Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018.
Of the $3.6 billion in military construction funds pulled for the border wall, $922 million was spent, according to documents obtained by McClatchy. The remaining $2.67 billion was either not yet designated for a specific border wall project or unspent, according to the documents.
Members of the House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees have reached out to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Defense Department to see how those funds can be returned and the projects restored.
More:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/01/congress-asks-pentagon-to-restore-military-base-construction-funds-from-border-wall/
