GOP Senator Scolds Biden For Security Risk While Paying Contractors Billions
A Republican senator recently blasted President Joe Biden for ending the national emergency declaration at the southern border while paying Department of Defense contractors millions of dollars not to build the wall, claiming that Biden is “paying professional construction contractors to babysit metal to the tune of $2 billion and counting.”
Senator James Lankford (Oklahoma) cited the languishing migration crisis in the US while lashing at Biden for pausing the construction of the border wall — which he said is also causing American taxpayers billions.
“More than 180,000 migrants attempted to cross our southern border in June alone. On January 20, President Biden issued Presidential Proclamation 10142, which terminated the federally declared emergency at the southern border and halted the construction of the congressionally funded border wall, citing the need to ‘assess’ the wall’s construction,” the GOP senator said in a press release.
You can read my full report here–> https://t.co/dbkv82wK1d
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) July 23, 2021
Storage fees costs billions
Lankford went on to note a report which detailed how Biden’s “efforts to suspend or terminate border wall construction have cost taxpayers between $1.837 billion to $2.087 billion since January 20, 2021.”
“This amount continues to increase by at least $3 million per day, according to records and data obtained by the Minority Staff of the Government Operations and Border Management (GOBM) Subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC),” he added.
“By the end of the Trump Administration, $10 billion had been transferred to the US Department of Defense (DOD) accounts for border wall construction and related projects,” the report said.
As of June 2021, however, Lankford continued that “the Biden Administration has wasted roughly 20% ($2 billion) of that $10 billion on suspension and termination costs related to border wall contracts. This waste of taxpayer resources threatens military readiness and national security.”
“$3 million to guard steel”
GOP Senator Blasts Biden For Halting Wall Construction: Paying Contractors Billions To ‘Babysit Metal’ https://t.co/I0rrfcBsJk pic.twitter.com/F3ICy2i3Wk
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 26, 2021
“The Biden Administration is paying contractors at least $3 million per day to guard steel, concrete, and other materials in the desert,” he added. “At the same time, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered over 1.1 million migrants along the Southwest border this fiscal year — a 20 year high,” he went on.
“This policy decision raises significant concerns about the Biden Administration’s immigration agenda and requires both Congressional oversight and legislative action,” the GOP lawmaker further said.
The statement noted Lankford’s plans to “hold every nominee” for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “until the crisis at the southern border is handled and until the southern border wall is complete.”
“It is absolutely absurd that Americans are paying contractors to guard metal gates that President Biden refuses to install because he wants to ‘study’ the wall,” Lankford said. “Stubbornly refusing to spend money approved for the wall is not ‘executing’ the law. It’s ignoring the law and ignoring the very real national security concerns posed by illegal entry across our very open southern border.
“Going for broke”
Lankford went on to say that with this action, the Democratic administration is just flushing taxpayer’s money down the drain.
“For years I have called out federal waste, but the Biden Administration is literally ‘going for broke’ with this nonsense,” he went on.
“Our border patrol agents are doing their best to secure our border, but they need additional barriers, roads, and technology to help keep us safe. Instead, President Biden is paying professional construction contractors to babysit metal to the tune of $2 billion and counting, while at the same time we’ve seen a 20-year high number of migrants crossing our open border.”
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