However, no funding decisions have been made yet
A Department of Defense fact sheet lists a multitude of military projects for which funding could, hypothetically, be re-directed to President Donald Trump’s planned border wall.
Two Seal Beach Naval Weapons Stations projects were on the list, as has been reported by other news organizations.
However, a spokesman for the Secretary of Defense’s office cautioned that the list represents potential projects and that no decisions have been made yet. “We don’t deal in hypotheticals,” said Lt. Col. Jamie Davis.
Because the wall is a national issue, Naval Weapons Stations Public Affairs Officer Gregg Smith referred the Sun to the Navy News Desk, which in turn referred thequestion to the Secretary of Defense’s office.
The list is 20 pages long and appears in a 21-page Department of Defense Fact Sheet recently released by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat. A copy of the fact sheet may be found on his website.
Lt. Col. Davis said that there is not much the Defense Department can do until they have a final list of the projects.
The Department of Defense fact sheet also said that no decisions had been made yet. “If the Department’s FY 2020 budget is enacted on time as requested, no military construction project used to source section 2808 projects would be delayed or cancelled.” Section 2808 refers to U.S. Code 2808, “Construction authority in the event of a declaration of war or national emergency.”
The first sentence of Section 2808 reads, “In the event of a declaration of war or the declaration by the President of a national emergency in accordance with the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) that requires use of the armed forces, the Secretary of Defense, without regard to any other provision of law, may undertake military construction projects, and may authorize the Secretaries of the military departments to undertake military construction projects, not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces.”
President Trump, a Republican, has issued an emergency declaration to fund his proposed border wall to secure the southern border of the United States.
The House, mostly the Democratic Party majority, tried to rescind the emergency decree, but President Trump vetoed the bill. The House tried to override Trump’s veto but the attempt failed.
Funds for some military projects could be diverted to the wall project. “The pool of potential military construction projects from which funding could be reallocated to support the construction of border barrier are solely projects with award dates after September 30, 2019,” said the Fact Sheet.
The Department of Defense fact sheet lists, among projects in all 50 states and several nations, 18 Navy projects and one Naval Reserve project in California alone. That doesn’t include four Army projects in California, one Air Force project in California and other California projects for other defense agencies.
The two Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station projects listed in the fact sheet are “Causeway, Boat Channel & Turning Basin” and “Missile Magazines.”
The causeway project is scheduled for July 2019, according to the DOD fact sheet. The missile magazines: are scheduled for August 2019.
