The Pentagon has on Monday notified the US Congress that it has authorized $1 billion transfer for the construction of President Donald Trump’s demand of a US-Mexico border wall barricade.
According to BBC news reports, the funds allocated was the first under Trump’s declaration of a state of national emergency to bypass the Congress and construct a barrier what he had vowed during his presidential election campaign. The funds are slated to be used for building 57 miles of fencing at the border.
In a statement, the Pentagon has said Patrick Shanahan, the acting US defence secretary, has “authorized the commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning and executing up to $1bn in support to the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol”.
The Pentagon statement also cited a federal law that “gives the Department of Defence the authority to construct roads and fences and to install lighting to block drug-smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of federal law enforcement agencies”.
The funds will cover the 18 feet “pedestrian fencing” as well as road improvements with new lights.
However, Democrats senators alleged the Pentagon has not verified the process and sought permission with the suitable committee before notifying the Congress of the wall funds transfer.
In a letter to Shanahan, the Senators wrote, “We strongly object to both the substance of the funding transfer, and to the department implementing the transfer without seeking the approval of the congressional defence committees and in violation of provisions in the defence appropriation itself,” according to CNN news reports.