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,
