Texas wants to buy surplus border wall parts but U.S. government ended sales: report
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said U.S.-owned border wall materials, which were available for sale, were pulled from an Arizona auction at the government's request. The Lonestar State had shown interest in purchasing the steel bollards used in the construction of the border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, but it was too late.
"Texas was never told in advance about the auction of the usable wall panels," wrote Patrick on Wednesday in a lengthy X, formerly Twitter post, referring to GovPlanet, a surplus government equipment online marketplace that ran the auction from Dec. 17 through Dec. 20.
Texas officials try to intercept sale of surplus border wall materials
Patrick noted that Texas became aware of the materials slated for auction on Dec. 12, the same day the Daily Wire reported the sale.
The next day, Patrick said Texas tried to find the border wall materials on the auction site, but that items were seemingly unavailable.
Patrick said his state put boots on the ground to investigate the sale: "Texas sent a representative to Arizona, and the auctioneers told him they pulled the wall panels from being auctioned off today at the direction of the U.S. Government."
The auctioneer would give Texas the first chance the buy the used border wall materials, should they go back up for sale, Patrick wrote.
"Governor (Greg) Abbott and I stand ready to buy them if they do," he added.
A media representative for Ritchie Brothers, GovPlanet's parent company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Patrick calls the attempted sale a political move
Patrick described the alleged stop to the sale as a "huge win" for Texas and President-elect Donald Trump.
"The border wall that Joe Biden was attempting to auction off for pennies on the dollar in secret has been stopped," wrote Patrick on X.
"Early this week, President Trump called out Biden for trying to sell off the border wall early this week," added Patrick.
He referred to a Monday news conference where Trump expressed frustration with the Biden administration over the auctions, which involved materials left in southern Arizona after Biden paused wall construction early in his presidency.
"It's very expensive, and now it's about double the price of what it would have been six years ago," Trump said on Monday. "And the (Biden) administration is trying to sell it for 5 cents on the dollar, knowing that we're getting ready."
The Department of Defense previously told Paste BN that “the material currently being sold through GovPlanet online auctions no longer belongs to the U.S. Government, and DoD has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of material it no longer owns."
Why are the materials being sold?
Section 2890 of the National Defense Authorization Act, introduced by Republican lawmakers in the House, requires the Department of Defense to develop a plan to use, transfer or donate all “covered materials” purchased for border barrier construction between fiscal years 2017 and 2022.
The law mandated that the Department of Defense submit a plan “to use, transfer, or donate to States on the southern border of the United States all covered materials” within 75 days of the National Defense Authorization Act’s enactment and begin executing it 100 days later.
The process continued “until the date on which the Department of Defense is no longer incurring any costs to maintain, store, or protect the covered materials.” That led to the eventual sale of a portion of the materials through GovPlanet, a government surplus marketplace.
After fulfilling requests from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and eligible border states, transferring nearly 60% of the materials, the Department of Defense sold the remaining 40% through a competitive sales contract.
The Arizona Republic's Raphael Romero Ruiz contributed to the article.