[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5130 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5130
To require the Secretary of Defense to use, transfer, or donate all
excess construction materials intended for the wall on the southwest
border of the United States that are being stored by the Department of
Defense, and for other purposes.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
August 1, 2023
Mr. Strong (for himself, Mr. Moylan, Mr. Bergman, Mr. Wittman, Ms.
Stefanik, Mr. Ezell, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, Mr. Norman, Mrs. Kiggans
of Virginia, Mr. McCormick, Mr. Carl, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Moore of
Alabama, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Kelly of Mississippi, Mr. Grothman,
Mr. Aderholt, Mrs. Lesko, Mr. Jackson of Texas, Mr. Luttrell, Mr.
Babin, Mr. Self, Mr. Finstad, Mr. Fleischmann, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Gimenez,
Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Owens, Mr. Huizenga, Mr. Carter of
Georgia, Mr. Brecheen, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Mills, Mr. Yakym, Mr. Bean of
Florida, Mr. Obernolte, Mr. DesJarlais, Mr. Fry, and Mr. Gosar)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Armed Services
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A BILL
To require the Secretary of Defense to use, transfer, or donate all
excess construction materials intended for the wall on the southwest
border of the United States that are being stored by the Department of
Defense, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Finish It Act''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) constructing physical barriers along the southwest
border of the United States has been one element of broader
efforts to secure that border during the administrations of
President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama, and President
Donald Trump;
(2) President Joe Biden is the first president to block
efforts to build a physical barrier along the southwest border;
(3) since President Biden cancelled southwest border wall
construction contracts in April 2021, the Department of Defense
has spent approximately $130,000 per day to store construction
materials on approximately 20 private sites in Arizona and New
Mexico;
(4) under the Biden administration, the Department of
Defense has paid at least $25,000,000 to store border wall
construction materials, rather than using those materials to
continue constructing a wall along the southwest border, or
fortifying the existing wall where necessary;
(5) the Biden administration has also prevented States from
using the existing construction materials to fortify or build
walls along their respective borders with Mexico;
(6) the Department of Defense has spent approximately
$300,000,000 on the unused border wall construction materials;
(7) physical barriers along the southwest border complicate
the persistent efforts of transnational criminal organizations
to traffic drugs and people into the United States, and enable
our law enforcement agencies to respond in a more focused
manner to the crisis at the southwest border; and
(8) given the severe crisis at the southwest border, there
is no justification for paying private landowners to store wall
construction materials rather than using those materials to
secure our border as soon as possible.
SEC. 3. DEPLOYMENT OF EXISTING CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS.
(a) Plan.--Not later than 15 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a plan
to utilize, transfer, or donate to States on the southern border of the
United States all existing excess border wall construction materials,
including bollards, for the express purpose of constructing a permanent
physical barrier to stop illicit human and vehicle traffic along the
border of the United States with Mexico.
(b) Execution of Plan.--Not later than 15 days after submitting to
Congress the plan required under subsection (a), the Secretary shall
work with the Defense Logistics Agency to execute that plan until the
Department of Defense is no longer incurring any costs to maintain,
store, or protect the materials specified under subsection (a).
(c) Requirements of Requesting States.--
(1) In general.--Any State requesting border wall
construction materials made available under this section must
certify, in writing, that the materials it accepts will be
exclusively used for the construction of a permanent physical
barrier to stop illicit human and vehicle traffic along the
border of the United States with Mexico.
(2) Penalties.--
(A) In general.--If, by the date that is two years
after receipt of materials accepted under this section,
a State does not use all such materials for the
construction of a permanent physical barrier to stop
illicit human and vehicle traffic along the border of
the United States with Mexico, the State shall pay to
the United States Government an amount equal to the
original purchase price of the materials that have not
been used for such purpose.
(B) No waiver.--The penalty under subparagraph (A)
may not be waived.
(d) Impact of Delay.--If the Secretary of Defense delays in
submitting the plan required under subsection (a) or executing that
plan as required under subsection (b), the travel budget of the Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy shall be decreased by one percent for
every two days of delay.
SEC. 4. REPORT.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act,
the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report containing
the following:
(1) Any internal correspondence of the Department of
Defense that informed the decision to forgo the excess property
disposal process of the Department of Defense and instead pay
$130,000 per day to store border wall panels.
(2) A list of the individuals and entities the Department
is paying for use of their privately owned land to store unused
border wall construction materials.
(3) An explanation of the process through which the
Department contracted with private landowners to store unused
border wall construction materials, including whether there was
a competitive contracting process and whether the landowners
have instituted an inventory review system.
(4) A description of any investigations by the Inspector
General of the Department that have been opened to examine the
wasteful policy of paying to store border wall construction
materials rather than using those materials to continue
building or fortifying the wall on the southwest border of the
United States.
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