The Trump administration on Thursday notified Congress it was using $3.8 billion in military funds to help build the border wall along the Mexico-US border.
In its reasoning, the White House told Congress that this small percentage of the military budget was needed to support “high priority interests” along the southern border.
“[The Department of Homeland Security] has identified areas along the southern border of the United States that are being used by individuals, groups, and transnational criminal organizations as drug smuggling corridors, and determined that the construction of additional physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the United States border is necessary in order to impede and deny drug smuggling activities,” the reprogramming action reads.
Once this decision became public, Ohio’s former presidential candidate and current U.S. Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) said in a press release that President Trump was making America “less safe” and “putting our soldiers in danger” by building this wall.
“We were promised that Mexico would pay for this wall, now it’s the American taxpayer and our men and women in uniform that will bear the brunt of this irresponsible decision.”
Ryan believes this act is “illegal” and a “violation of the separation of powers within the Constitution.”
Furthermore, he complained about the money being taken away from building the new C-130Js for the Air Force Reserve.
“He [Trump] is taking hundreds of millions from the funding of these new planes. I will work with my Republican colleagues and use my position on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to ensure this important program get funded,” he said.
Earlier this week, Ryan, along with other Ohio Congress members, tried to get a new aircraft contract for the Youngstown Air Reserve Station. This airbase is one of two finalist vying for 4 New C-130J Aircrafts.
Even though, Trump has taken money from the military budget, military spending has increased every year he has been in office, according to the balance.com.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected].
Photo “Tim Ryan” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Poor Tim.