The United States state house, Pentagon, has approved the spending of an additional $1.5 billion on building 80 miles of the U.S-Mexico border wall. According to Patrick Shanahan, who passed the fund re-allocation from supporting Afghanistan security forces and other projects to building 80 miles of the southern Mexico-U.S wall, the funds were drawn from different sources and won’t impact the readiness of the force.
Earlier in March, Acting Secretary of Defense had approved the initial transfer of Defense Department dollars amounting to $1 billion to build about 60 miles of the wall at Yuma in Arizona and El Paso, Texas. The entire $2.5 billion redirected to the project are in response to the United States’ President Donald Trump declaration of national emergency at the border.
However, the diversion of Pentagon fund has been met with criticism from Democrats in the Congress who insists the Congress should have a say in the re-programming of funds although Shanahan and other senior defense officials claim there is no need to seek Congress’ permission.
According to Shanahan, the state house is fully engaged in fixing all crises at the U.S-Mexico border, and about 4,000 troops and 19 aircraft are closely supporting the Customs and Border Protection personnel in carrying out their duty.
The funds’ redirection move occurred after Sarah Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, released a statement that President Donald Trump will nominate Shanahan as the next United States secretary of defense.
