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Old 02-26-2020, 09:48 AM
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Arrow Bipartisan Armed Services leaders tear into Pentagon over use of $3.8B for border wal

Bipartisan Armed Services leaders tear into Pentagon over use of $3.8B for border wall
By: Rebecca Kheel - The Hill News - 02-26-20
Re: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4...use-of-38b-for

The top Democrat and Republican on the House Armed Services Committee tore into Pentagon officials on Wednesday over the Trump administration transferring $3.8 billion, mostly from weapons programs, to build the president’s southern border wall.

In separate opening statements and questions at a hearing with the Pentagon’s top officials, committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), its ranking member, ripped the funding transfer as an “enormous problem” and a break in “literally decades” of precedent.

“This is an enormous problem,” Smith said at the hearing with Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. “It undercuts any argument about the need for resources within the Department of Defense. And it also undercuts the congressional process.”

“There have been decades, literally decades of practice where if there are changing needs money can be moved within the department budget with the approval of Congress,” said Thornberry, who is retiring from Congress at the end of this term. “I’m afraid that the result of this will be greater restrictions on the department’s ability to move money around to meet changing needs, and the country will suffer as a result.”

Smith and Thornberry have both previously expressed concern about the most recent transfer of military funding to President Trump’s border wall, but Wednesday’s hearing provided an opportunity for them to pointedly address Pentagon leaders in public.

Smith and Thornberry also sent the Pentagon a letter this week rejecting the funding reprogramming. The letter, though, was largely symbolic, as Department of Defense officials have said they transferred the money as soon as they sent Congress its notice.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon notified Congress it would transfer $3.8 billion from various programs to its counter-drug fund to be used to build the wall.

Among the programs that are losing money to the wall are the F-35 fighter jet, MQ-9 reaper drone, the P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol plane, the C-130J transport plane, the landing helicopter assault ship replacement, the expeditionary fast transport ship and unspecified equipment for the National Guard and reserves.

The latest transfer comes after the Pentagon last year used $2.5 billion from counter-drug funds and $3.6 billion in military construction funding for the wall.

In his statement on Wednesday, Thornberry differentiated between the money taken last year and what is being used this year. Last year, much of the money that was transferred to the counter-drug fund came from Army personnel accounts after the service did not meet its recruitment goals.

“This is not taking excess funds,” Thornberry said of this year’s funding grab. “It is substituting the judgment of the administration for the judgment of Congress by reducing specific weapons that had been authorized and appropriated. We made a different judgment call than that administration’s budget request.”

In his questions to Esper, Thornberry asked whether the annual defense policy bill “is going to matter” or if the White House will “send down a directive saying even though it’s signed into law, authorized and appropriated, we’re going to take away some money.”

Esper insisted that “what the Congress does matters,” adding “we look to the Congress as partners.”

Thornberry appeared unconvinced, replying that he’s “already expressed some of the concerns I have.”

Smith, meanwhile, highlighted that the Pentagon recently sent Congress lists with tens of billions of dollars of so-called unfunded priorities.

“It was somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 [billion] to $30 billion of ‘unfunded’ requirements and at the same time, ‘meh, we found $3.8 billion just sitting in a corner that can go to purpose that was not intended,’” Smith said.

He also noted that some of the military construction funds taken for the wall last year came from projects in Europe.

“These are particularly important because these are projects that were done in partnership with our NATO allies,” Smith said. “And if our NATO allies cannot even rely on us to come through on a — I forget the exact amount of money, I think it was in the tens of millions, maybe just over a $100 million [military construction] project — if we can’t come through with that, how much can they rely on us?”

TAGS MAC THORNBERRY DONALD TRUMP MARK ESPER ADAM SMITH TRUMP BORDER WALL MILITARY BUDGET HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
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Personal note: I wondered how long it would take to see someone step up and refute the border-wall expenses over the needs of the military. Well we will see how much further it takes and whether or not Trump will over-ride the budget and put us further into a higher National Debt.

Boats
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Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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