State joins suit over border wall funds
MADISON - Wisconsin and 18 other states are suing President Donald Trump’s administration over diverting $3.8 billion in public funds to help pay for the construction of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.
The lawsuit comes after Oshkosh Corp. learned in February it was poised to take a $101 million hit from the Defense Department’s plan to divert nearly $4 billion from elsewhere in its budget to build 177 miles of a border wall.
“This diversion by the Trump Administration is a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars and neglects the needs of our state National Guard units,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement. “There is simply no justification for the president’s continued desire to create a crisis at the border, and this move negatively impacts not only Wisconsin’s economy but the safety of our communities.”
Evers on Wednesday authorized Attorney General Josh Kaul to join the multi-state lawsuit, which was filed by
California’s attorney general.
A first look at the planned cuts related to the border wall shows that $101 million will be moved from the production of vehicles known as Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks that the U.S. Army has relied on to carry munitions and other critical supplies.
The trucks have been in the Army’s fleet since 1981. Since 1995, Oshkosh Corp. has rebuilt more than 12,500 of those vehicles — essentially stripping them to the frame and rebuilding them to like-new condition.
Federal budget documents show $101 million being diverted from the trucks because “the procurement of legacy vehicles is inconsistent with the goals to modernize the Tactical and Support Vehicle fleet in support of the National Defense Strategy.”
Most of the $3.83 billion in defense spending diversions come from canceling purchases of military aircraft, ships and drones, according to the documents.
Oshkosh Corp. has 3,100 employees and 750 suppliers involved in its defense industry work. In 2010, the company was praised by the Pentagon for engaging in one of the most rapid military-truck buildups since World War II. A year ago, it received a $232 million order to rebuild 407 of the trucks as well as manufacture 601 new trailers for the Army.
Many of the thousands of military trucks that Oshkosh has built or rebuilt in the last 20 years have seen the worst that combat can dish out. They’ve come back to the factory with bent frames, mangled wheels and cabs riddled with bullet holes.
“Wisconsin communities will suffer if funds are diverted from family-supporting jobs like those at Oshkosh Defense,” Kaul said in a statement.
The cuts also would eliminate more than $1 billion from programs that modernize some of the Army National Guard’s oldest equipment, according to a spokesman for the National Guard Association of the United States.
Rick Barrett of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report. Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.