President Trump’s proposal to move billions of dollars from military spending and drug interdiction to fund the construction of 234 miles of barriers on the southern border sets up two new conflicts: One over where the money is coming from, and one over where it might go.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Friday that the White House would be using roughly $2.5 billion in counter narcotics funds from the Defense Department and about $3.6 billion in military-construction funding, as well as approximately $600 million from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, to supplement the $1.375 billion appropriated by Congress for border-barrier construction.
The Trump administration calls the $3.6 billion it aims to reallocate from military construction “a small fraction” of the total budget for such work. It constitutes roughly one-third of the total military construction budget for fiscal 2019.
The Pentagon already has signaled to Congress that the $3.6 billion would likely not come from funds for housing for military families, but rather from projects to up-grade training and other military facilities. The Pentagon has indicated it would seek to first take money from projects that had been funded but that weren’t scheduled to begin until after Sept. 30, when the current fiscal year ends.
The White House’s defense budget request for fiscal 2020 “will make plans to backfill for these accounts,” an administration official said Friday. Any such requests would likely come on top of asking for funding for a new missile-defense strategy, which acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan unveiled last month.
Determining which military construction projects could be cut-in which states, and in which services-could have political implications, said Travis Sharp, research fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
A large share of military-construction funding is slated for projects that have depart-ment-wide reach, such as federal buildings in Washington, D.C. After that, the Air Force and Navy have the most funds allocated for construction projects. If the Pentagon begins cut-ting those projects, “will the ad-ministration go after; one service more than others?” Mr. Sharp asked.
Pentagon officials Friday declined to provide more details.
In a letter sent Friday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) asked Mr. Shanahan to provide a list of projects that would lose funding, citing April 20il.8 testimony from department officials regarding a $]16 billion maintenance backlog and a significant proportion of buildings in poor or failing condition.
The other pool of Pentagon funds that the White House aims to tap comes from a drug-interdiction program started in 1989 to target trafficking at its source by sending U.S. military personnel to help their local counterparts detect, track and intercept the flow of illegal drugs. The program also pays for U.S. military forces to work with law-enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. to stop drug trafficking.
The program has come in for criticism. A January report by the Government Accountability Office concluded that the National Guard’s spending of those funds was sloppy.
Mr. Trump has said he wants to use the money to build 234 miles of barriers along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico.
The administration hasn’t provided details on the in-tended location of the barriers, nor on whether it would replace current barriers or set up barriers where none have previously been.
The administration says decisions on where to build are guided by a border-security plan from the Border Patrol, which assesses the risks at different sections of the border. Officials have repeatedly declined to make the plan public, however describing it as “law enforcement sensitive.”
The southern border had 654 miles of pedestrian and vehicle barriers when Mr. Trump took office. About one-fifth of that, though, consisted of older designs considered t0 be less effective. In recent years, congressional funds have been used to replace and reinforce some existing wall.
Much of the border has natural features such as mountains, valleys and the Rio Grande. Mr. Trump has said that given those barriers, a wall of about 700 miles in to-tal could be effective.
A major obstacle to speedy construction is the sensitivity around different types of land at the border. Private land-owners have raised objections to the seizure of their land.
Earmarked Money and Where It Goes
MONEY FOR BORDER BARRIERS
$341 million Appropriated in fiscal 2017
$1.375 billion Appropriated in fiscal 2018
$1.375 billion Appropriated in fiscal 2019
$3.6 billion
Administration aims to reallocate from military construction budget under national emergency declaration $2.5 billion
Administration aims to, reallocate from narcotics program
$600 million
Administration aims to use from Treasury Forfeiture Fund
MILES OF BORDER BARRIERS
1,991 miles
Length of the U.S.’s southern border with Mexico
1,295 miles
Approximate length of border that consists of river
696 miles
Approximate length of border that is on land
654 miles
Length of border barriers when Trump took office
27miles
Approximate length of new barrier funded in FY2018
55 miles
Length of new barrier funded in FY2019
234 miles
Minimum length of new barrier that Trump wants (includes the 55 miles funded in FY2019)