Border wall funds pending
The acting secretary of defence said yesterday he had not yet determined how much money he would redirect to President Donald Trump’s border wall project.
Pat Shanahan, who has been leading the Pentagon since Jim Mattis stepped down in December, said he had a great deal of discretion in deciding how to use the authorities granted to him by Trump’s declaration on Saturday of a national emergency.
The former Boeing executive emphasised that his mission was to support the border security needs of the Department of Homeland Security.
The White House said before Trump’s announcement that the border project, which is opposed by Democrats, would receive $3.6 billion (NZ$5.2b) that Congress originally provided for military construction projects and $2.5 billion from the Pentagon’s 2019 drug interdiction programme.
Shanahan, however, indicated that he had the discretion to provide less, although he said the $3.6 billion figure was likely to prove correct.
‘‘You can trust the numbers,’’ he said, referring to the $3.6 billion and $2.5 billion, ‘‘in terms of the potential.’’
The law allowing a repurposing of military construction funds during a national emergency says the secretary of defence is authorised ‘‘to determine whether border barriers are necessary to support the use of the armed forces’’ in an emergency. Asked whether this meant he could decide whether a wall was militarily necessary, he said, ‘‘For us the determination will be made in co-ordination with the Department of Homeland Security.’’ He also said the staff that supported the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon had been working out a ‘‘mission analysis’’ of border security needs, including a recommendation on where barriers should be prioritised. This work began some time ago in anticipation of a possible Trump emergency declaration.
Shanahan said he was aware of the political hazards of diverting military construction money from high-priority areas like military housing, suggesting he would attempt to avoid that.
Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said before Trump’s announcement that while he favoured spending more on border security, he opposed diverting ‘‘significant’’ sums from the Pentagon budget.
‘‘Doing so would have detrimental consequences for our troops as military infrastructure was one of the accounts most deprived during the Obama-era defence cuts,’’ Thornberry said. ‘‘And it would undercut one of the most significant accomplishments of the last two years – beginning to repair and rebuild our military.
‘‘I hope that the president will pursue other options.’’
Shanahan was returning to Washington after a week of travel in Europe and the Middle East. It was his first trip abroad as the acting secretary of defence. He visited Afghanistan and Iraq, then attended a Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels before winding up his trip with the annual Munich Security Conference.