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[Pages S3092-S3093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NDAA
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, Democrats continue to propose thoughtful,
effective solutions to the humanitarian crisis at our southern border.
In February, after the President finally ended his government
shutdown, I helped write an omnibus appropriations bill that included
$564 million for inspection equipment at ports of entry to detect
lethal narcotics and $414 million for humanitarian assistance at the
border.
Last week, I and a number of my colleagues are reintroducing a
comprehensive bill to address the root causes of the humanitarian
crisis coming out of the Northern Triangle. Our bill cracks down on
cartels and traffickers, provides for in-country processing so that
refugees can seek protection without making a dangerous northbound
journey, expands third-country resettlement in the region, and
eliminates immigration court backlogs.
I note with regret that the President and his political appointees in
the Department of Defense have other priorities. They continue to take
from our military and ignore our military's
[[Page S3093]]
readiness to build the President's medieval wall.
We all remember Donald Trump's idea that we need a 2,000-mile
concrete wall from sea to shining sea and his claim that Mexico would
pay for it. He said it some 200 times on the campaign trail and in the
Oval Office.
When Mexico said no, the President told the military they would have
to pay for it. On February 15, President Trump announced that he would
go around Congress and build the wall with $6.1 billion that Congress
gave to our military. After the announcement, the President was asked
if he had consulted his military advisers first. He said that they told
him some of the tradeoffs, but, ``It didn't sound too important to
me.''
In March, Acting Secretary Shanahan took the first step: taking $1
billion appropriated by Congress for military pay and pensions to use
for the wall. DOD told us that they had more money than they needed
because the Army missed their recruiting goals.
At a hearing that same week, Secretary of the Army Mark Esper
admitted that the Army hadn't budgeted for paying the salaries of the
troops on the border, and they were short $350 million. Why didn't
Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan take this $1 billion of extra
funds and give some to the Army? His notification to Congress laid it
out in disappointing detail. He labeled the wall a ``higher priority.''
It is incredible that these are the priorities of the President and
Acting Secretary Shanahan: wall first, military last.
Then on May 10, Acting Secretary Shanahan did it again, but he took
$1.5 billion from the military this time. The Washington Post headline
the next day said it all: ``Pentagon will pull money from ballistic
missile and surveillance plane programs to fund border wall.''
Once again, the Pentagon claimed that the funds were extra, that the
Pentagon couldn't spend this missile defense money and surveillance
money this year for various reasons. Once again, the ``higher
priority'' was the wall.
But the Army isn't the only one in need. Each military service is
blinking red. Last month, in a leaked memo, the head of the Marine
Corps, General Neller, said that the President's decision was
contributing to ``unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness
and solvency.''
General Neller noted that the marines had already pulled out of three
military exercises and were cutting back on combat equipment
maintenance because there wasn't enough money to go around. He noted
that Hurricanes Florence and Michael last year had done $3.6 billion in
damage to Camp Lejeune and other Marine Corps property. He said that
marines were living in ``compromised housing,'' with another hurricane
season starting up this June. He also warned that he might also have to
cancel more than a dozen additional exercises if the marines didn't get
budget help. Once again, we are seeing the wall is first, and the
military is last.
In an unusual move late last month, Secretary of the Air Force
Heather Wilson published an op-ed highlighting the impact of several
natural disasters on Air Force bases. In October 2018, Hurricane
Michael inflicted $4.7 billion of damage on Tyndall Air Force Base in
Florida. In March 2019, a historic flood inundated Offutt Air Force
base in Nebraska, submerging dozens of buildings. The Senate continues
to work on an emergency supplemental to make a down payment on repairs
at these bases, as well as at Camp Lejeune, but in the meantime, this
$1.5 billion could have jump started repairs months ago. Once again,
the wall came first, and the military came last.
In each case, the Pentagon didn't ask me to approve these transfers
as it normally does. As vice chair of the Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee, I have different priorities, the ones I have mentioned,
and so they went around me and the rest of Congress.
Also still to come is the $3.6 billion from cancelling important
military construction projects. The damage continues to pile up. These
harmful decisions will continue until my Republican colleagues side
with our military over a campaign pledge. I hope they think long and
hard about which one of those is more important.
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