Trump’s Border Wall Is Finally Happening

By The Blaze. The Pentagon announced Monday that the first of contracts to build the border wall proposed by President Donald Trump have been awarded and construction will begin shortly. . .

The announcement named SLSCO Ltd., a company from Galveston, Texas, as the major recipient of $789 million for the construction of “border replacement wall” in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. The contract is to be completed by October 2020.

Barnard Construction Company from Montana was also awarded $187 million by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct “primary pedestrian wall replacement” in Yuma, Arizona. That project is also estimated to be completed by October 2020.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense told The Hill in a statement that “30-foot bollard fencing and a five-foot anti-climb plate” would be constructed in the Santa Teresa contract. For the Yuma contract, “18-foot bollard fencing and a five-foot anti-climb plate” would be constructed. (Read more from “Trump’s Border Wall Is Finally Happening” HERE)

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Pentagon Awards First Border Wall Contracts Using Diverted Funds

By CBS News. Mr. Trump visited the border and toured construction projects along the border last week. Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers, predicted that by “around December of 2020, the total amount of money that we will have put in the ground in the last couple of years will be about 450 miles. That’s probably about $8 billion, in total about 33 different projects.”

The funding for the contracts announced Tuesday comes from $1 billion the Pentagon reprogrammed from counter-narcotics programs, which the Pentagon can accomplish without congressional approval or a national emergency declaration. The move has drawn blowback from members of Congress, with lawmakers saying it violates a longstanding understanding not to reprogram funds without congressional sign-off.

In February, Congress tried to block Mr. Trump’s declaration, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats in the Senate in a rebuke to the president. However, the president vetoed the joint resolution blocking the national emergency, and the House did not have enough votes to override a veto. (Read more from “Pentagon Awards First Border Wall Contracts Using Diverted Funds” HERE)

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