Sen. Kevin Cramer is calling on the Department of Homeland Security to fire the Pentagon officials overseeing border wall projects and instead hire private-sector companies to get the job done faster and for less money.
In a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner Tuesday, Cramer, R-N.D., told DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen the Army Corps of Engineers has “wasted taxpayer funds and been egregiously slow in constructing physical barriers” on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The president prides himself on accomplishing projects on time and under budget. Unfortunately, current construction of the wall has been contracted out to the USACE, and on time and under budget has not characterized their work,” Cramer wrote in a letter dated Monday. “Leading the government to be on time and under budget requires a change in the way we operate, and getting the USACE out of projects that can be handled by private contractors will help move our government in this more efficient direction.”
[Also read: Company offers to build 234 miles of border wall for $1.4 billion]
The Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract in July 2017 to Nebraska-based SWF Constructors. The company is affiliated with the Coastal Environmental Group, which the government had previously identified as fraudulent.
Despite pushback from lawmakers, including House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, the corps did not rescind the subcontract. The two-mile project took eight months to complete, Cramer explained in the letter.
In June 2018, the Army Corps wrapped an 18-month-long procurement process and contracted out work on a four-mile section of barrier in El Paso, Texas. West Point Contractors was given $22 million for the project and 150 days to complete it.
“The contractor has been allotted over 150 working days to complete only four miles of fence (about 140 feet of production per day). Even at this slow pace, the lengthy procurement process will still have taken over 3 times as long as the time it will take to construct this section of the border wall,” Cramer wrote.
The Army Corps was then asked by DHS last December to build a 29-mile fence in Yuma, Ariz.; Calexico, Calif.; and San Diego, Calif. It took the $287 million and sub-contracted SLS Construction. That company itself contracts projects out to subcontractors.
Construction on the three small projects began in February and is expected to be completed in mid-2020, with about 1 mile of fence built every 15 days.
Cramer said there is little financial incentive to finish on time and because each company will “take a cut along the way,” the barrier’s speedy production is not a priority to the Army Corps.
“[T]he USACE should not be trusted with the responsibility of securing our southern border,” Cramer told Nielsen.
