Pentagon defends diverting funds for wall

WASHINGTON – Pentagon officials were chastised Wednesday on Capitol Hill for their plan to redirect $3.6 billion from military construction projects to build barriers on the southwest border.

Robert McMahon, assistant secretary of Defense for sustainment, told lawmakers that construction projects would be delayed but not canceled in response to President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency.

The projects chosen will have a minimal effect on readiness to fight, he said. Requests for additional funding will come in Trump’s 2020 budget for the Pentagon, McMahon said.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DFla., chairwoman of the panel, challenged McMahon, telling him “you’re fooling no one.” Adding money to future budgets to pay for delayed projects amounts to funding the wall without approval from Congress, she said.

She accused McMahon of treating members of Congress like “chumps.”

McMahon promised a state-bystate list of projects that could be delayed to pay for the wall.

The Pentagon began preparing options to build barriers on the southern border last month, anticipating Trump’s declaration of a national emergency.

Trump sought $5.7 billion to build a wall on the border, and, after failing to negotiate a deal with Congress, he declared the emergency. That allows the administration to tap military accounts that have not spent money on approved construction projects. The White House has said Trump will try to access $3.6 billion in military money.

On Tuesday, the House voted 245-182 to block Trump’s emergency declaration. But Democrats didn’t win enough support from Republicans to overcome Trump’s threatened veto.

The declaration and other measures will free up $8 billion for 234 miles of bollard wall, the White House says. A lengthy legal battle is expected over the president’s ability to use the declaration for that purpose.

Meanwhile, the number of troops deployed to the border in support of the Department of Homeland Security is growing. More than 5,000 are deployed to the southwest border.