Shanahan: 256 miles of border barriers in the works

Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said today funding is currently on contract to build about 256 miles of barriers along the southwestern border with Mexico.

He told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee about a half a mile a day will be built over a six-month period.

"How you will see this materialize in the next six months is that about 63 additional new miles of wall will come online," he said.

The money for the barriers comes, in part, from $1 billion the Pentagon reprogrammed, tapping funds left over from underruns in Army recruitment.

The rest of the funding, Shanahan said, comes from the fiscal years 2017 and 2018 Department of Homeland Security budgets as well as forfeiture funds provided by the Treasury Department.

The Pentagon has requested $7.2 billion in border security funding for FY-20, intending to use half the funds to backfill deferred military construction projects.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has also ordered about 4,300 active-duty and National Guard troops to the border to assist DHS.

Subcommittee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL) noted that the Pentagon’s border mission is expected to continue indefinitely and asked why the mission was not funded in the department's FY-20 request.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said the Pentagon is now working with DHS to develop a "more predictable, comprehensive plan" for the border mission.