Ernst Blasts Biden’s Border Wall Bargain

WASHINGTON – Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, exposed the Biden administration for wasting taxpayer dollars and failing to use border wall materials to secure our nation’s southern border.

She pressed Melissa Dalton, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, on why the Biden administration auctioned off taxpayer-funded border wall materials to a private buyer at a 96% discount.

Watch her full line of questioning here.

“Unfortunately for our taxpayers, we now see that these materials have been sold for pennies on the dollar...that the federal government spent on it,” Ernst said.

“There’s a big scheme going on here, where people are making a ton of money off the taxpayer. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.”

Background:

Senator Ernst has been calling on President Biden to put these border wall materials to use for over a year. She led the BUILD IT Act and was an original cosponsor of the FINISH IT Act – which was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.

In August, she conducted critical oversight after it was reported that the Biden administration was auctioning off border wall materials, even though Congress has legislation moving forward to use them to build the wall. Following the Biden administration’s decision to build the border wall, Ernst called on President Joe Biden to stop selling off already purchased and unused border materials and secure the border.

In November, she saw firsthand paid-for border wall materials sitting unused by the unfinished wall – ironically surrounded by its own fence.

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