President Joe Biden’s administration has spent roughly $2 billion to pay for military contractors tasked with guarding unused materials after the Democrat put a pause on construction of the border wall.
Biden’s cohort shelled out roughly $3 million per day to “guard steel, concrete, and other materials in the desert,” according to a report from the Senate’s Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, of which Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford is the chairman. The $2 billion figure is roughly 20% of the $10 billion transferred to the Department of Defense by former President Donald Trump to build the border wall, a process that was halted by Biden on his first day in office.
“For years I have called out federal waste, but the Biden Administration is literally ‘going for broke’ with this nonsense. Our border patrol agents are doing their best to secure our border, but they need additional barriers, roads, and technology to help keep us safe. Instead, President Biden is paying professional construction contractors to babysit metal to the tune of $2 billion and counting, while at the same time we’ve seen a 20-year high number of migrants crossing our open border,” Lankford said in a statement, adding that Biden is paying “not to build the border wall.”
DEMOCRATS PLAN TO ZERO OUT WALL FUNDING AND REDUCE BORDER PATROL MONEY AMID HISTORIC SURGE
As part of his decision to halt construction on the southern border barrier, Biden commissioned a 60-day study of the construction process, though GOP leaders allege that neither the Department of Homeland Security nor senior figures in the administration have released details of the inquiry.
“The public needs to have access to the findings, data, and methodology of the Biden Administration’s border wall study,” the report read.
Lankford also took the time to bash the administration for the apparent lack of transparency.
“It is absolutely absurd that Americans are paying contractors to guard metal gates that President Biden refuses to install because he wants to ‘study’ the wall,” he said. “Stubbornly refusing to spend money approved for the wall is not ‘executing’ the law. It’s ignoring the law and ignoring the very real national security concerns posed by illegal entry across our very open southern border.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump constructed 453 miles of new and repaired border barriers by the time he left office, and approximately 300 more miles were planned.
The Biden administration has faced bipartisan backlash as unprecedented numbers of migrants continue to flood the southern border. In June, agents encountered roughly 190,000 attempted illegal crossings, a 21-year high after previous months shattered records.
