Democratic senators introduce bill to block funding for border wall live stream

A group of Democratic senators on Friday introduced a bill that would block the spending of federal funds on livestreaming construction of President Trump’s border wall after The Washington Post reported that White House officials were planning to set up cameras for a livestream. 

The “No Wall-Cam Act’’ was introduced Friday by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), according to a statement from Markey’s office. 

“Federal funds may be expended to install or operate a video recording device at a border wall construction site for the purpose of live streaming the construction activities through a webcam,” the proposal states. 

An unidentified senior White House official told the Post that “there will be a wall cam, and it’ll launch early next year.” 

The newspaper reported that the initiative aims to increase support for construction of President Trump’s signature project. 

“The only thing more senseless and wasteful than an ineffective border wall is installing a camera to livestream its construction,” Booker, who is running for president, said in the statement.

“Federal funds should be used to improve the lives of Americans, not capture the activities of Trump’s xenophobic vanity project,” he added. 

Markey said in the statement that “the only idea dumber than building a so-called ‘impenetrable’ wall” is “livestreaming it.”

“We shouldn’t waste a single dollar on a wall-cam,” Markey said.