{"id":58026,"date":"2020-07-13T16:08:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T16:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/07\/13\/angry-appropriators-to-deny-dod-budget-flexibility-over-border-wall-cash-grabs\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:13:18","slug":"angry-appropriators-to-deny-dod-budget-flexibility-over-border-wall-cash-grabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2020\/07\/13\/angry-appropriators-to-deny-dod-budget-flexibility-over-border-wall-cash-grabs\/","title":{"rendered":"Appropriators to deny DoD budget flexibility in border wall spat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 Fired-up House appropriators are expected to vote Tuesday to reject the Pentagon\u2019s requests for added budget flexibility over the President Donald Trump\u2019s diversion of military funds<\/a> to build his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sign of fraying relations between the Department of Defense and Capitol Hill, the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee \u2015 chaired by Indiana Democratic Rep. Pete Visclosky<\/a> \u2015 \u201ccondemned\u201d the Pentagon\u2019s past approvals of nearly $10 billion over two years toward the border wall, saying it had fueled the panel\u2019s growing skepticism over the department\u2019s budget requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe granting of additional budget flexibility to the Department is based on the presumption that a state of trust and comity exists between the legislative and executive branches regarding the proper use of appropriated funds. This presumption presently is false,\u201d the subpanel said in its 400-page report accompanying its fiscal 2021 defense spending bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full House Appropriations Committee is set to mark up and approve the bill on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon relies on legal authorization to transfer funding between accounts and manage contingencies, and it requested $9.5 billion this year. But a key provision in the bill would cap the authority at $1.9 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defense spending bill contains multiple provisions aimed at reversing Trump\u2019s move, in February, to divert $3.8 billion from weapons programs and other DoD accounts for the wall. One provision in the defense bill would require the DoD return unobligated funds taken for the wall in fiscal 2020 to their original accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the latest in a series of countermoves<\/a> by lawmakers since Trump, after being denied billions of dollars he requested for the wall, declared a national emergency in 2019 to siphon the money from defense accounts. The project was Trump\u2019s signature campaign promise in 2015, but his method has sparked bipartisan claims he\u2019s usurping Congress\u2019 power of the purse.<\/p>\n\n\n\t