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This is just plain wrong. So much for Trump's 'concern' for the armed forces...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/to...cid=spartandhp
When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico two years ago, it smashed through the National Guard training base here, sending the plaques that Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes gathered over his U.S. Army career into the howl of an unforgiving wind.
The base, known as Camp Santiago, emerged from the storm much like the rest of the island: damaged, shocked and determined to recover against dim economic odds.
So when Reyes helped secure $331.5 million for the base from the Pentagon’s treasured construction budget, officials thought Maria’s clouds had come with a silver lining.
The money would not only rebuild Camp Santiago. Now, for the first time, an island that regularly sends its men and women to war for the United States would get a modern, hurricane-proof training ground for its guard.
Or so Puerto Rico thought.
Early this month, the Pentagon announced that 127 military construction projects approved by Congress would be defunded under emergency authorities to free up $3.6 billion for President Trump’s border barrier on the southern border with Mexico. Among the shelved construction projects: plans to rebuild Camp Santiago.
For Reyes, the adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, the news was a crushing disappointment. He said the National Guard leadership in Washington assured him that Congress would take up the projects again. Reyes is hopeful but uncertain.
“There’s no guarantee in life,” he said, leavening his discouragement with a dash of fatalism. “Eventually we will die. That’s the only guarantee in life.”
The defunding of the Puerto Rico project comes as the Trump administration considers diverting billions more in military funding to pay for barrier construction next year. The president has pledged to complete nearly 500 miles of new barrier by the 2020 election, a goal that will require a total of $18.4 billion in funding through next year.
Hurricane Maria damaged or ruined 60 percent of the buildings at Camp Santiago. Workers have already razed the headquarters building and mess halls that the storm mangled beyond repair. Down the road, the maintenance garage’s doors don’t close because the wind twisted them out of shape. The roof on one maintenance bay still looks like a loosely shuffled deck of cards. Some guardsmen preparing to go to war are training elsewhere because the storm halved the base’s capacity. One engineering battalion, deploying to Afghanistan next year, trained in North Dakota.
Officially, the Trump administration says the 127 projects the Pentagon has defunded for the wall have been “deferred” rather than canceled. For the projects to proceed, however, Congress must once again appropriate funding for them, a process the administration calls “backfilling.”
The Republican-led Senate has agreed to backfill the $3.6 billion worth of projects in its version of the annual defense policy bill. But Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, have refused to re-appropriate money for projects that Congress has already funded.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/to...cid=spartandhp
When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico two years ago, it smashed through the National Guard training base here, sending the plaques that Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes gathered over his U.S. Army career into the howl of an unforgiving wind.
The base, known as Camp Santiago, emerged from the storm much like the rest of the island: damaged, shocked and determined to recover against dim economic odds.
So when Reyes helped secure $331.5 million for the base from the Pentagon’s treasured construction budget, officials thought Maria’s clouds had come with a silver lining.
The money would not only rebuild Camp Santiago. Now, for the first time, an island that regularly sends its men and women to war for the United States would get a modern, hurricane-proof training ground for its guard.
Or so Puerto Rico thought.
Early this month, the Pentagon announced that 127 military construction projects approved by Congress would be defunded under emergency authorities to free up $3.6 billion for President Trump’s border barrier on the southern border with Mexico. Among the shelved construction projects: plans to rebuild Camp Santiago.
For Reyes, the adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, the news was a crushing disappointment. He said the National Guard leadership in Washington assured him that Congress would take up the projects again. Reyes is hopeful but uncertain.
“There’s no guarantee in life,” he said, leavening his discouragement with a dash of fatalism. “Eventually we will die. That’s the only guarantee in life.”
The defunding of the Puerto Rico project comes as the Trump administration considers diverting billions more in military funding to pay for barrier construction next year. The president has pledged to complete nearly 500 miles of new barrier by the 2020 election, a goal that will require a total of $18.4 billion in funding through next year.
Hurricane Maria damaged or ruined 60 percent of the buildings at Camp Santiago. Workers have already razed the headquarters building and mess halls that the storm mangled beyond repair. Down the road, the maintenance garage’s doors don’t close because the wind twisted them out of shape. The roof on one maintenance bay still looks like a loosely shuffled deck of cards. Some guardsmen preparing to go to war are training elsewhere because the storm halved the base’s capacity. One engineering battalion, deploying to Afghanistan next year, trained in North Dakota.
Officially, the Trump administration says the 127 projects the Pentagon has defunded for the wall have been “deferred” rather than canceled. For the projects to proceed, however, Congress must once again appropriate funding for them, a process the administration calls “backfilling.”
The Republican-led Senate has agreed to backfill the $3.6 billion worth of projects in its version of the annual defense policy bill. But Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, have refused to re-appropriate money for projects that Congress has already funded.
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