Biden isn't selling border wall 'junk.' Republicans are in hysterics anyway. | Opinion
If Trump wants to build his border wall with 'mostly junk' and he can get whole rusty panels for 'pennies on the dollar,' why not just buy it back?
Break out the smelling salts.
That sneaky Joe Biden is apparently selling off America’s future border wall as part of a dastardly plot to open the country to the world's crooks and criminals.
Or, so we are told.
“Why,” one of many irate readers asked me on Monday, “is Biden selling the border wall material for pennies on the dollar?!?”
A conservative media outlet ignited the outrage last week, reporting that President Biden is “racing” to sell off unused border wall materials and showing a video of flatbed trucks hauling away the stuff from Arizona’s southern border.
Trump, others were immediately outraged
The outrage was, of course, as immediate as it was uninformed.
“If it’s true, they’re purposefully hamstringing an incoming president,” Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., charged, without first finding out if it’s true.
Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called it “reckless” and “a last ditch effort to keep Arizona’s border open.”
Naturally, incoming President Donald Trump fanned the flames during his Monday news conference.
"The administration is trying to sell it for 5 cents on the dollar, knowing that we're getting ready to put it up, and what they're doing is ... almost a criminal act," Trump said.
No less than Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fired off a news release, then ran off to court in search of a restraining order.
“Texas is going to court to prevent any border security materials from being unlawfully sold and to find out the truth about what the federal government may be doing to subvert border wall construction,” he announced on Tuesday.
A Republican-passed law required the sale
Actually, the truth is pretty easy to find.
Long story short: The Biden administration isn’t selling off unused sections of the border wall.
It’s being done at the behest of … wait for it … Congress.
In December 2023, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the budget for the military.
Section 2890 of the law required the Department of Defense to submit a plan to Congress on how it would use, donate or sell excess border wall materials purchased mostly during the first Trump administration.
The material had been sitting in southern Arizona, unused, since Biden took office and phased out border wall construction.
According to the law, the unused materials were to be donated to border states or other federal agencies for construction projects “aimed at stopping illicit human and vehicle traffic along the border.”
The remaining materials were to be sold.
Leftover border wall panels are 'mostly junk'
The Defense secretary was directed to submit a plan to Congress within 75 days of the law taking effect and to begin implementing it within 100 days after that, continuing “until the date on which the Department of Defense is no longer incurring any costs to maintain, store or protect the covered materials.”
As a result, nearly 60% of the material was redistributed to federal agencies and border states.
In June, the remaining 40% was sold to GovPlanet, a private company that auctions off government surplus equipment. Now, GovPlanet is offering the surplus material for sale to the highest bidder.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was among those who checked out the offerings. He dispatched the Texas Facilities Committee, the agency in charge of building the Texas border wall, to evaluate the materials available for purchase on GovPlanet.
According to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the commission deemed the material “mostly junk, with most panels covered in concrete and rust.”
“There were a few panels that might be usable but not worth the cost of shipping to Texas from Arizona,” Patrick posted last week.
If Trump wants rusty metal to build the wall ...
Patrick went on to rail against the Biden administration for trying to “gain favor with the radical left open border crowd” and “fighting President Trump to the bitter end.”
He didn’t explain how complying with a year-old federal law that was actually introduced by Republicans constituted a fight to the bitter end.
Nor did Trump explain how complying with a legal mandate constitutes “almost a criminal act.”
But ... Paxton to the rescue. He ran to court Tuesday asking a Trump-appointed judge to stop the Biden administration from selling off the materials “for pennies on the dollar.”
Here’s a thought: If Trump wants to build his border wall with “mostly junk” and he can get whole rusty panels for “pennies on the dollar,” why not just buy it back?
Laurie Roberts is a columnist at the Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz, on Threads at @LaurieRobertsaz and on BlueSky at @laurieroberts.bsky.social