Projects at three military facilities in Oklahoma could be cut to fund President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall after his national emergency declaration in February.
An $8 million small arms range at the Oklahoma Air National Guard base in Tulsa, a $16 million fire rescue center at Altus Air Base and a $7 million diesel system at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant face cuts as the Pentagon looks to fund the wall.
“It is important to be clear that this is not a list of projects that will definitively be impacted,” said Leacy Burke, spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
After the emergency declaration Feb. 15, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Northern Command plan to use a Department of Homeland Security list of border barrier projects to determine which, if any, support the use of the armed forces, according to a Defense Department memo. The memo included a list of projects nationwide that haven’t been awarded yet.
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Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan produced the list of potential construction cuts, including Navy piers, airfield hangars and repair shops, after senators requested more information on unawarded contracts amid the ongoing debate about the emergency declaration.
Projects that have already been awarded and those planned to be awarded in fiscal year 2019 reportedly won’t be affected. Military housing, amid heightened scrutiny and controversy over living conditions at multiple bases, also won’t be affected, according to the memo. An $18 million dormitory at Altus, though funded in FY 2016, won’t face cuts for that reason.
With those limitations in mind, $178 million in funding at both Altus and Tinker Air Force Base for hangars and a simulator dedicated to the Air Force’s new KC-46A Pegasus refueling aircraft are safe because they’re to be awarded in FY 2019. The same can be said for an $11 million aircraft vehicle storage building at an Army National Guard heliport in Cleveland County.
