The Trump administration is pressing ahead with plans to redirect billions of dollars from military projects to help pay for the US president’s Mexico border wall.
Defence secretary Mark Esper began briefing lawmakers on Tuesday of his plans to divert $3.6bn, effectively defunding 127 unspecified military projects. The funds will reportedly be used to support 175 miles of wall between the US and Mexico, reducing the need for the thousands of military and National Guard members stationed along the border.
Donald Trump has made building a border wall between the US and Mexico a hallmark of his presidency. The fight over funding the wall prompted a five-week partial government shutdown late last year.
In February, Mr Trump declared a national emergency in order to divert billions of dollars in federal money towards building a wall, after Congress reached a bipartisan budget deal providing just $1.4bn to the project. The controversial manoeuvre prompted a series of legal challenges, but in July the US Supreme Court, by a 5-4 margin, lifted a lower court order blocking the president’s plan to use billions in military funds for construction.
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, called the latest decision “unacceptable and deeply dangerous”.
“The president is negating the constitution’s most fundamental principle, the separation of powers, by assaulting our congressional ‘power of the purse’,” she said on Tuesday, adding: “Cancelling military construction projects at home and abroad will undermine our national security and the quality of life and morale of our troops, making America less secure.”
