Early Christmas Eve evening President Trump took to Twitter to disclose that has awarded a contract to construct 115 miles of border wall in Texas as a partial government shutdown over the U.S.-Mexico border continued.
“I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115-mile long contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas,” President Trump tweeted. “We are already building and renovating many miles of Wall, some complete. Democrats must end Shutdown and finish funding. Billions of Dollars, & lives, will be saved!”
I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115 mile long contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas. We are already building and renovating many miles of Wall, some complete. Democrats must end Shutdown and finish funding. Billions of Dollars, & lives, will be saved!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018
A March bill included money for 33 miles of barrier construction in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, but work there has yet to begin.
Customs and Border Protection announced in early November a $145 million construction project was awarded to build roughly six miles of border wall in Texas. The agency, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, gave the multimillion-dollar job in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector to SLSCO, which is expected to kick off in February.
Other work has merely replaced existing barriers that had been deemed “ineffective,” not added miles.
It looks like Christmas will be over and done with before the government will have a chance to get fully back to business. The incoming acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said the partial shutdown could drag into the New Year.
Monday and Tuesday, Christmas Eve and Christmas, respectively, are federal holidays, meaning the government is closed anyway. That means Wednesday is the first day the public could begin to feel the effects of lost government services, Mulvaney said.
Source: Fox News
