Prototypes for Mexican border wall to be built
The Department WASHINGTON — of Homeland Security took the first major step Thursday toward building a barrier on the border with Mexico, a key campaign promise of President Donald Trump, as officials announced that they had awarded contracts to build several prototypes of a concrete wall.
Four companies will build the prototypes in the San Diego area, said officials at Customs and Border Protection, an agency within the department. The companies selected will each have 30 days to complete the projects after the agency gives them the order to proceed.
Ronald D. Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner at Customs and Border Protection, said the prototypes would be about 30 feet high and that the contracts were between $400,000 and $500,000 each. The department has reallocated $20 million from other programs to pay for the prototypes and related costs.
Homeland Security officials said the prototypes would be added to the existing walls in the San Diego area and would allow the agency to evaluate which barriers are most effective in giving Border Patrol agents time to respond to reports of illegal drugs and human smuggling.
The awarding of the contracts for a border wall comes as the government assesses the damage from Hurricane Harvey, which has devastated parts of Texas. Some congressional critics have accused the administration and its Republican allies of proposing cutting billions in funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the lead department for disaster recovery, to pay for a border wall.
An array of Democrats and other critics have called the wall unnecessary.
“It’s hard to understand the strategic value of this wall in terms of protecting U.S. citizens and illegal activity,” said Laura Peterson, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, who was on the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “CBP didn’t seem to need it before Trump’s executive order.”
Trump has asked Congress to allocate $1.6 billion this year toward building a wall along the roughly 1,900-mile border with Mexico. A mix of barriers already stretch across about 650 miles of the border. The House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that included $1.6 billion for a wall. The bill would fund 74 miles of fencing along the border. The Senate has yet to act on the bill.
Trump has threatened a government shutdown if the border wall is not included in the next spending bill.
Affirming WASHINGTON — its disdain for so-called “Obamacare,” the Trump administration on Thursday announced sharp cuts in programs promoting health care enrollment under the Affordable Care Act for next year.
Advertising will be cut from $100 million spent on 2017 sign-ups to $10 million, said Health and Human Services officials.
Funding for consumer helpers called “navigators” will also be cut about 40 percent, from $62.5 million for 2017, to $36.8 million for next year. That change reflects a new performance-based ethic that penalizes navigator programs failing to meet their sign-up targets, administration officials said.
About 12.2 million people signed up for subsidized private health insurance under Barack Obama’s signature law this year, many in states that President Donald Trump carried in November. Current enrollment is estimated to be around 10 million, due to attrition also seen in prior years.
Top Democrats accused the administration of malice.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California accused the administration of a “cynical effort to lower enrollment” that would “create chaos” and increase premiums.
Her Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer of New York, said the administration “is deliberately attempting to sabotage our health care system,” adding that “the American people will know who’s to blame.”
It was unclear how the administration’s actions might affect a planned effort in the Senate to craft bipartisan legislation that would stabilize insurance markets.
Trump and congressional Republicans have been unable to deliver on their vow to “repeal and replace” the 2010 health care law. The president has repeatedly pronounced the program on the verge of collapse, and has threatened via Twitter to cut off payments to insurers that help reduce consumers’ copays and deductibles.
Independent observers say the ACA’s insurance markets have problems, but are not on the verge of collapse. For next year all U.S. counties will have at least one participating insurer, although consumers in close to half of counties will only have a single carrier to pick from. Some major insurers have left the program after taking deep financial losses.
The administration says the government hasn’t gotten much bang for its buck as far as ACA advertising and the navigator program, with some enrollment centers signing up very few customers.
By comparison, HHS said the combined advertising budget for Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug plans is $9.7 million.
HHS officials said the 98 navigator programs funded by the ACA enrolled fewer than 82,000 people, or less than 1 percent of the total. For next year, officials said navigator funding will reflect each sign-up center’s prior performance.
“Judging effectiveness by the amount of money spent, and not the results achieved, is irresponsible and unhelpful to the American people,” HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said in a statement. “Obamacare’s navigator program has been ineffective. During the upcoming enrollment period, navigators will be funded in proportion to their performance.”