A senior Pentagon official Friday called future basing for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter a high priority unlikely to be included in cuts to the department’s military construction fund for use toward wall construction on the southern border, adding funds will be pulled from from areas that would have “minimal impact.”
Officials, speaking to reporters Friday before briefing Congress later in the afternoon, said Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is currently in a weeks-long assessment process to determine how $6 billion in Pentagon funds will be resourced to support the president’s national emergency declaration last Friday.
Shanahan to date has made no final budgeting decisions on funds to be allocated for the wall construction effort, according to officials.
“We’re focused on this as a high priority, doing it as expeditiously as possible,” a senior defense official said. “This is all in the assessment phase right now. No decision has been made in terms of departmental actions with regard to actually performing construction.”
A senior White House official told reporters last week the administration is requesting $8 billion for the border wall, including $3.6 billion from DoD’s military construction budget, and $2.5 billion pulled from the Pentagon drug interdiction program and subsequent reprogramming (Defense Daily, Feb. 15).
The remaining funds include $1.375 billion from the spending bill the president signed last Friday and $600 million the Treasury department’s drug forfeiture fund.
A senior official said on Friday it is possible there is less than $80 million in unobligated funds left in the Pentagon’s counter-drug program, requiring reprogramming from other DoD areas to reach the $2.5 billion mark.
Lawmakers have also expressed concern that the national emergency could pull funds from key military construction projects such as F-35 basing (Defense Daily, Feb. 15).
Following the briefing, Defense Daily asked if F-35-specific military construction projects could be included, and a senior official responded it was very unlikely that it would be included, calling the area a “high priority.”
“The only thing I can tell you is that military housing will not be used as a source,” a senior officials said during the briefing.
Officials said lawmakers must be notified of Pentagon reprogramming decisions under the national emergency, while not necessarily requiring congressional approval.
Shanahan’s weeks-long assessment period includes evaluating DHS’ request for assistance before finalizing reprogramming decisions. The department will then move into a period of allocating funds and rapidly awarding contracts through the Army Corps of Engineers, followed by a longer period of construction for the potential wall.
In the meantime, officials said 1,000 additional personnel will be deployed to the southern border by March 1 to bring the total number to 6,000 assisting with laying out concertina wire and providing detection and monitoring assistance to Customs and Border Protection agents.
Once funds are allocated, DHS must transfer over federal land to the military in the areas where the Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with constructing the border wall.
“The Army will accept jurisdiction of that land from DHS, and establish the location as a military installation,” an official said during the briefing.