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$311M in Hawaii military construction could be diverted for border wall

The House Appropriations Committee has identified $311.3 million in Hawaii military construction projects that it says are “vulnerable” to being diverted by the Trump administration to help build a southern border wall under the president’s declaration of a national emergency.

The projects include:

>> $105 million for the ongoing construction of a Fort Shafter U.S. Army Pacific command and control facility.

>> $17 million at Hickam for an F-22 Raptor fighter facility.

>> $45 million at Pearl Harbor for a drydock waterfront facility.

>> $66.1 million at the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps base for a corrosion control hangar.

>> $78.32 million for a Pearl City water transmission line.

The Appropriations Committee said it compiled a worldwide list of military construction projects for which funding has been allocated but not yet obligated “and that therefore are vulnerable to having funds diverted to the border wall under the national emergency declaration.”

The Trump administration said $3.6 billion in military construction project funding would be diverted for an $8 billion plan to build more than 234 miles of steel bollard border wall.

“I don’t believe the current situation on our southern border warrants a declaration of national emergency. That question is rightly addressed in both the courts and in Congress,” U.S. Rep. Ed Case, a Hawaii Democrat, said in a statement. “Even if it was warranted, I don’t believe the president is authorized to divert funding for specific military construction or other projects that were specifically authorized and funded by Congress for those purposes to pay for his plans for the southern border.”

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