The Trump administration is waiving federal contracting laws to help speed up the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The waivers, announced Tuesday by the Homeland Security Department, will apply to 177 miles of wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, according to the Associated Press. Among the laws being waived are those that require open competition among contractors and a requirement that projects be fully bonded before work begins.
DHS previously waived federal environmental law to help speed up construction. This is the first time the administration is using waivers to evade competition law.
The administration has so far built 120 miles of new border wall. DHS claims that 200 miles of wall are under construction and that 450 miles will be completed by the end of 2020.
The border wall was a key part of President Trump’s 2016 campaign platform and his administration. His efforts to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico have come under fire as Democrats have tried to block funding for the project. Last year, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from using $2.5 billion in military funds to construct the wall along the southern border.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told Fox News that under previous administrations, border wall construction was a bipartisan issue. “It’s only in this administration that a number of Democrats and others choose not to secure our border,” he said Tuesday on Fox & Friends.
In his 2021 budget, Trump requested $2 billion from Congress, $3 billion less than he requested for 2020. The administration plans to use $7.2 billion in Defense Department funding for border wall construction.
In 2018, a federal court ruled that the Trump administration was within its rights to waive environmental rules to build a wall.
