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Senate Republicans are demanding the Department of Defense (DOD) halt all sales of border wall materials after it was revealed the agency was auctioning off construction parts in an apparent attempt to skirt pending legislation that forces the agency to continue construction of the project.
“We are deeply disappointed to learn that rather than using construction materials that were purchased to secure the southwest border for that purpose, the Department of Defense has begun auctioning these materials off for other purposes,” GOP senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday.
The issuance of the document comes days after the New York Post reported that the Biden administration has been “quietly auctioning off millions of dollars’ worth of unused parts from former President Trump’s border wall” for very small sums of money. According to the report, GovPlanet, “an online auction house specializing in military surplus,” has garnered roughly $2 million after selling dozens of steel tubes that were supposed to be utilized “as vertical bollards in the border barrier’s 30-foot-tall panels.”
“On Tuesday, GovPlanet netted $154,200 for 729 of the 28-foot-tall hollow beams, sold in five separate lots for an average $212 apiece,” the report reads. “Thirteen more lots are set to be auctioned on Aug. 23 and Aug. 30.”
The Post further noted how GovPlanet’s auctioning of wall parts “picked up markedly” in May after Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and his GOP Senate colleagues introduced the FINISH IT Act, a bill that, according to a press release issued by Wicker’s office, would require the DOD to “allow millions of dollars of unused border wall panels already owned by the U.S. government to be used to extend the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.” As noted in Senate Republicans’ letter to Austin, provisions of the legislation were incorporated into the House and Senate’s respective versions of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. --->READ MORE HERE
The Biden administration is quietly auctioning off millions of dollars’ worth of unused parts from former President Trump’s border wall for peanuts – in an apparent end-run around pending legislation in Congress.
Since April, GovPlanet, an online auction house specializing in military surplus, has sold 81 lots of steel “square structural tubes” — intended for use as vertical bollards in the border barrier’s 30-foot-tall panels — hauling in about $2 million.
On Tuesday, GovPlanet netted $154,200 for 729 of the 28-foot-tall hollow beams, sold in five separate lots for an average $212 apiece.
Thirteen more lots are set to be auctioned on Aug. 23 and Aug. 30.
But just last month, as part of its annual defense appropriations package, the Democrat-led Senate passed a Republican-sponsored bill aimed at forcing Biden to stem the worsening migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border by extending the wall.
Up to $300 million worth of taxpayer-funded wall components have been left to rust since Biden came to office, Republicans have said.
The Finish It Act will make the feds use those materials on new wall construction — or hand the remaining stock over to states like Texas for use in their own border defense projects.
Now, the Biden administration is rushing to get rid of the wall leftovers before the GOP-led House can pass a matching version of the bill and make it law, critics told The Post.
“This sale is a wasteful and ludicrous decision by the Biden administration that only serves as further proof they have no shame,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the bill’s sponsor, told The Post — denouncing the move as “outrageous, behind-the-scenes maneuvering.”
“Leaving the border open to terrorists while selling border security materials at a loss is Bidenomics in a nutshell,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a co-sponsor.
“The pennies made from selling the border wall will not be enough to pay the families who suffer from a criminal act committed by someone who crossed our open borders during the Biden administration,” railed Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
++++ Senate Republicans demand Biden halt sale of border wall parts++++++
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