Durbin, Leahy, Schatz Statement On DOD List Of Military Projects On The Chopping Block For President Trump's Wall
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense; Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee; and Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs today released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Defense sent Congress a list of military construction projects that could be delayed in order to pay for President Donald Trump’s southwest border wall:
“Earlier today, the Department of Defense provided Congress with a list of projects which may be impacted by the President’s desire to divert military funding to pay for his border wall. The Department claims that it will exempt housing, barracks, and dormitories – and in the process quietly acknowledges that more than $10 billion of other top priorities that the military and their families have requested over the last several years is on the chopping block in order to placate the President. This madness will not stop until more of our Republican colleagues are willing to put the military ahead of party politics.”
Earlier this month, Durbin, Leahy, and Schatz led a letter to acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan where they called on the Defense Department to provide Congress with a list of military projects it intends to defund to pay for President Trump’s border wall.