A new report by Republicans on a Senate subcommittee has concluded that the Biden administration is spending a minimum of approximately $2 billion to suspend construction of the wall at the southern border, even amid a continuing migrant crisis.
The report by the minority staff of the Government Operations and Border Management Subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee found that efforts to suspend or terminate wall construction projects at the Defense Department have cost between $1.8 billion to $2 billion and the administration is spending $3 million every day.
“These interim findings show that the Biden administration’s efforts to stop border wall construction constitute significant waste of taxpayer resources,” the report says. “As of the drafting of this report the Biden administration has paid border wall contractors at least $2 billion and counting to not build the border wall.”
“This $2 billion comes directly from DOD’s budget, and the Biden administration’s continued waste of these funds poses risks to national security and border security,” it says.
Biden ended the Trump-era wall project, which saw 450 miles built during the Trump administration, on his first day in office with hundreds of miles still funded and contracts already underway. Biden ordered a review of the federal government’s obligations.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has since announced a plan on what to do with money assigned to the wall, while the administration redirected transferred funds from Pentagon accounts to the original projects for which they had been appropriated. The Defense Department (DOD) had $10 billion transferred from border wall construction and related projects.
