Moulton, Smith, Gallego, and O’Rourke Lead Letter to Sec. Mattis on Use of DOD Funds for Border Wall

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA), House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA), Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) led a letter with seven other Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee to Secretary of Defense James Mattis regarding the use of Department of Defense funds for construction of a “border wall.” Earlier today, Secretary Mattis testified before the House Armed Services Committee, where Moulton questioned him on U.S. military strategy.

In the letter, the members stated, “We write to express our strong opposition to recent reporting indicating the White House will seek to pay for its proposed ‘border wall’ using U.S. Department of Defense funding. Not only is such a proposal unsound and unnecessary on its merits, such budgetary maneuvering risks depleting critical military accounts dedicated to rebuilding the readiness and capabilities of our armed forces.”

Hon. Secretary James Mattis

Secretary of Defense

1000 Defense Pentagon

Washington, DC  20301-1000

April 11, 2018

Dear Secretary Mattis,

We write to express our strong opposition to recent reporting indicating the White House will seek to pay for its proposed “border wall” using U.S. Department of Defense funding. Not only is such a proposal unsound and unnecessary on its merits, such budgetary maneuvering risks depleting critical military accounts dedicated to rebuilding the readiness and capabilities of our armed forces.

Moreover, we are strongly concerned that politicized attempts to shift funding from the Defense Department jeopardize much needed accounts you and your service secretaries have repeatedly testified to the importance of preserving. Maintaining steady funding for weapons replenishment, modernization of our ground forces, needed training and readiness, and other technologies to ensure our warfighters are able to defeat our adversaries is critical to our national defense. Constructing an unnecessary border wall is not the intent or purpose of the funding we in Congress authorize and appropriate to the Department.

We support border security measures that keep our country safe, however, building a border wall would not measurably strengthen our homeland security and would be excessively costly, harmful, and a waste of taxpayer resources. Moreover, using critical Department of Defense funding to do so undermines our national security and the budgetary stability we have sought to provide our servicemembers.

Finally, we would like to point out that the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act does not authorize the construction of a border wall. We respectfully request a statement of your next steps to be taken with this border wall request.

Sincerely,

Seth Moulton                          Beto O’Rourke                        Ruben Gallego

Member of Congress             Member of Congress             Member of Congress

Jackie Speier                           Anthony G. Brown                    Salud Carbajal

Member of Congress             Member of Congress                Member of Congress

John Garamendi                      Niki Tsongas                            Joe Courtney

Member of Congress               Member of Congress              Member of Congress

Jacky Rosen

Member of Congress

To learn more about Congressman Seth Moulton visit https://moulton.house.gov or connect with him on Facebook,Twitter, Instagram, Medium.

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