Pentagon Moving $3.8 Billion From Weapons Programs to Fund Southern Border Wall

Members of the National Guard work on construction of a border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border next to San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico, on Thursday, June 8, 2006. Photo was taken from a few steps into the United States. The arrival of U.S. National Guard troops in Arizona has scared off illegal Mexican migrants along the border as a whole, significantly reducing crossings, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.(AP Photo/David Maung)

The Pentagon is transferring $3.8 billion from weapons programs to fund a wall on the Southern Border.

The funding for the wall will pull funds from programs such as the F-35 fighter jet.

According to a report from The Hill, a notice sent to Congress said the money is going to “support of higher priority items” and is “required to provide support for counter-drug activities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).”

“DHS has identified areas along the southern border of the United States that are being used by individuals, groups, and transnational criminal organizations as drug smuggling corridors, and determined that the construction of additional physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the United States border is necessary in order to impede and deny drug smuggling activities,” the notice says.

Democrat lawmakers, who used to be anti-war, are reportedly furious that there will be a cutback on weapons spending.

Congress has twice blocked the emergency declaration from President Donald Trump, which allows him to move the funding around for national security reasons. The efforts were both vetoed.

“The notice says that $2.2 billion from the Pentagon’s base fiscal year 2020 budget and $1.6 billion from a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account will be transferred to the Pentagon’s counter-drug fund, which will then be used on the wall,” the Hill reports.

Building a wall was one of the biggest promises of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

 

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