A senior administration official said lower priority military construction projects, such as repairs that could wait until next year, would be targeted. The official insisted nothing that impacts lethality or readiness would be impacted.
While it’s still unclear exactly which projects will be targeted, some projects on the list of vulnerable projects include special operations forces training centers and operations facilities for Navy SEAL training. Delay of construction of these types of projects could directly affect readiness, ABC News contributor Col. Steve Ganyard, a former Marine Corps pilot, said.
“While some things can afford to slide a year, there are construction plans that go for 10 years. Any time you disrupt long term planning budgets, it has second or third order effects. It’s not as simple as sliding everything one year. It could disrupt a lot of things,” Ganyard said.
And experts also warn about the potential consequences of reallocating $2.5 billion from the Pentagon’s drug interdiction program.
Those funds are usually used to fund federal, state, and local law enforcement investigations into drug traffickers and violent gangs, according to ABC News Contributor John Cohen, a former Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary.
“The Department of Defense interdiction monies are used to pay for intelligence-gathering, are used to fly airplanes and to support ships that are in the ocean that are actually interdicting loads of drugs en route United States,” Cohen told ABC News’ Devin Dwyer.
“In a sense, we’re taking money from effective operational programs and putting them to support a wall which will have at best a marginal impact on drugs flying into the country,” Cohen said.
The plan is also being met with resistance even from Republican senators on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe said: “If it has to be that way … leave MilCon alone.”
