Pentagon sends Congress list of projects that could lose funds to Trump’s emergency declaration

The Pentagon delivered a list of projects to Congress on Monday that could be affected by President Trump’s plan to use $3.6 billion in military construction funds for his proposed border wall.

The 21-page list of military construction funds that could be tapped for the wall includes everything from equipment maintenance facilities to training areas to schools for military families.

Its delivery comes days after acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan had promised senators he would provide such a document.

{mosads}“We know President Trump wants to take money from our national security accounts to pay for his wall, and now we have a list of some of the projects and needed base repairs that could be derailed or put on the chopping block as a result,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement Monday.

Lawmakers are getting the list after they voted on a resolution to block Trump’s national emergency declaration but before the House’s planned vote on overriding Trump’s veto.

Trump vetoed the resolution Friday, and the House plans to hold a veto override vote March 26.

“What President Trump is doing is a slap in the face to our military that makes our border and the country less secure,” Reed said. “Now that members of Congress can see the potential impact this proposal could have on projects in their home states, I hope they will take that into consideration before the vote to override the president’s veto.”

The document sent to lawmakers Monday lists all military construction projects for which Congress has approved funding but for which the Pentagon has not signed a contract. The emergency declaration allows Trump to dip into such funds, which are known as unobligated funds.

The list, which senators released to reporters Monday, is broken down by military service, which is then further broken down by state or country. There are projects throughout the United States and abroad in places including South Korea, Germany and Qatar.

In a memo accompanying the list, the Pentagon stressed that not all projects included in the document will be affected and that no projects would be delayed or canceled if the Pentagon’s fiscal 2020 budget is passed on time and as requested.

The Pentagon requested $3.6 billion in its fiscal 2020 budget to backfill military construction accounts.

“Decisions have not yet been made concerning which border barrier projects will be funded through” the emergency declaration, the memo says. “If the Department’s FY 2020 budget is enacted on time as requested, no military construction project used to source [emergency declaration] would be delayed or cancelled.”

The memo also pledges that “no military housing, barracks, or dormitory projects will be impacted.”

During Shanahan’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, Democrats grilled him on Trump’s plan to use $3.6 billion in military construction funding for the border wall.

Democrats were particularly upset the Pentagon had yet to deliver lawmakers a list of projects that could be affected despite requests for one.

At the Thursday hearing, Shanahan pledged to Reed he would deliver by the end of the day a list of all unobligated military construction funds to see what projects are at risk.

Shanahan did not meet that Thursday deadline, leading to more accusation of stonewalling by Democrats.

“This is the White House wanting to hold the list back because they worry that if senators and House members saw the potential projects that were going to be ransacked to pay for the president’s wall, they would lose votes,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Also Sunday on CBS, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said no projects scheduled to start in 2019 would be affected.

“There’s no list of projects that are absolutely going to not be funded so that the wall can be,” he added.