U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) might represent a state that’s more than 1,000 miles away from America’s border with Mexico, but the Biden administration’s botched policies mean the border crisis is as much a problem for her state as any other — especially when Biden and his cabinet are actively trying to go around Congress to prevent them from taking action to enhance border security.
Over the weekend, it was reported by The New York Post that “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,” and Ernst isn’t standing idly by.
“The Biden administration canceled border wall projects and left materials to rack up dust,” Ernst said in a statement provided to Townhall. “As I have worked to hold him accountable for wasting taxpayer-funded parts and use them to actually secure our border — President Biden is shamelessly auctioning them off for pennies on the dollar!”
Previously, Ernst spearheaded the BUILD IT Act and subsequently cosponsored Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) FINISH IT Act to get the Biden administration to use already procured materials to improve or shore up security on the border.
The latter passed the upper chamber with bipartisan support in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2024.
Despite — and seemingly due to — lawmakers’ efforts, Biden is trying to make border materials disappear, essentially, by selling them off in his administration’s version of a fire sale rather than use them to address at least one part of his border crisis.
According to The New York Post, the sales included “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.”
“This is a clear signal he does not take border security seriously,” Ernst declared. “President Biden cannot get away with subverting Congress’ work on this — he must put the border materials to use, end the taxpayer-funded waste, stop the unprecedented flow of illegal aliens across our southern border, and finish the wall!”
In addition to the immediate effects of Biden’s unsecured border — crime, human trafficking, drug running, firearm smuggling, etc. — Biden’s inaction and refusal to use materials just laying around at the border comes at an ongoing financial cost to taxpayers.
Earlier this year, Ernst rang the alarm after a report to the Senate Armed Services Committee from the Army Corps of Engineers estimated that it costs $130,000 per day to “watch over” the unused border wall parts — valued at around a quarter of a billion dollars — at an annual cost to taxpayers of almost $50 million.
Ernst’s solution is, as she’s pointed out previously, “simple.” Allowing materials already bought and paid for by taxpayers to shore up the U.S.-Mexico border — rather than sitting around and costing more money to keep an eye on — makes sense. But Biden won’t have it, so he’s auctioning off the building materials at an apparent loss to taxpayers in a bizarre attempt to sabotage Congress’ attempt to actually use resources they previously procured.
Biden’s action makes no sense, which means it fits perfectly with the policies of an administration that has assumed telling illegal immigrants “do not come” would keep them from unlawfully entering the U.S.
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