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Townhall Media/Julio Rosas
Joe Biden signed an executive order during his first day in office that put a halt to new border wall construction. He froze the money for border wall construction projects and terminated Trump’s national emergency declaration on the southern border. Steps are being taken now to further move the process along.
The Department of Defense announced Friday that the Biden administration has canceled further construction of the wall on the southern border. The photo above shows a gap in the border wall system in McAllen, Texas left as it is because of Biden’s order in January. The funding that Trump moved from the military budget is being sent back to the Pentagon. Military construction projects will receive the money instead of the border wall. A spokesman for the Pentagon presented the announcement as a matter of supporting the military.

© MPR News/Getty Images/KJN
Biden seen hypothetically at the wall he has never visited. President Biden is canceling projects to build a wall along the southern border using diverted defense funds and will use some funding to counter environmental damage from the wall's construction.
Then-President Trump had diverted billions in defense and military construction funds toward building the wall, using emergency powers after Congress refused to fully fund the project directly. A Biden administration official said Friday:
"Consistent with the President's Proclamation terminating the redirection of funds for border wall,
no more money will be diverted from other purposes to building a border wall. Today, the Department of Defense will begin

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Congressional Republicans argue Biden’s actions were illegal, given that Congress appropriated $1.4 billion for the wall in December, and have led to this year’s surge in border crossings.
“The president’s decision to withhold funding on the border wall along with other actions his administration has taken have fueled a national security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border,” Rep. Jason Smith
Immigration has been one of Biden’s biggest political vulnerabilities in the early months of a presidency that’s generally been greeted with high levels of support from the public.
The number of migrants apprehended crossing the border reached a 15-year high of 170,000 in March, fueled by an uptick in minors making the journey alone. The White House said this past week that the number of children being held in Border Patrol facilities has fallen 84 percent from its March peak.

Biden halts Trump's military-funded border wall projects
ANI |
Updated: May 01, 2021 14:27 IST
Washington [US], May 1 (ANI): US President Joe Biden is cancelling projects to build a wall along the southern border using diverted defence funds and will use some funding to counter environmental damage from the wall's construction.
Then-President Donald Trump had diverted billions in defence and military construction funds toward building the wall, using emergency powers after Congress refused to fully fund the project directly, according to The Hill.
"Consistent with the President's Proclamation terminating the redirection of funds for border wall, no more money will be diverted from other purposes to building a border wall," a Biden administration official said on Friday (local time).

Dive Brief:
In a $1.6 trillion discretionary funding request sent to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Appropriations on Friday, President Joe Biden's administration did not ask for border wall construction funds and proposed that unobligated, prior-year funding set aside for wall construction be canceled. The president will submit his full budget request for 2022 in the coming months.
Even though the administration did not request money for border wall construction, the funding it proposed does include $1.2 billion for other types of border infrastructure like modernization of land ports of entry and new border security technology.
The funding request seems to contradict media reports that the Biden administration might be planning to resume a program of wall construction. During the 2020 campaign, Biden said his administration would not "build another foot of wall," but the administration has not yet announced how it will proceed with wall contracts in progress.

“It’s not a single answer to a single question. There are different projects that the chief of the Border Patrol has presented and the acting commissioner of CBP presented to me,” the secretary said.
“The president has communicated quite clearly his decision that the emergency that triggered the devotion of DOD funds to the construction of the border wall is ended. But that leaves room to make decisions as the administration, as part of the administration, in particular areas of the wall that need renovation, particular projects that need to be finished,” he said.
He said those parts include “gaps,” “gates,” and areas “where the wall has been completed but the technology has not been implemented.”

President Donald Trump promised to use existing funds to begin immediate construction of a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. | Reuters/Mike Blake
Republican lawmakers urged the U.S. Government Accountability Office to weigh in on the legality of President Joe Biden halting border wall construction, which they argue violates federal law and has caused “an unfortunate, yet entirely avoidable scenario” at the overwhelmed southern border.
Biden rolled back many Trump-era policies on his first day in office through sweeping executive orders, including a proclamation to suspend border wall construction and re-direct Congress-approved funds. The proclamation argued the border wall “is not a serious policy solution” and a “waste of money.”

March 17, 2021
Last Congress, many Democrats, including Rep. John Yarmuth, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, claimed the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) broke the law when it paused the obligation of funds to Ukraine for 50 days to determine the best use for them.
On the very first day of his administration, however, President Biden directed that funding specifically appropriated to build the wall along the southern border be paused for 60 days to determine how best to spend those funds. Press reports indicate that all funding for the wall construction has stopped.
Biden has now held these funds longer than OMB held the Ukraine funding. But Yarmuth has stayed silent about the Biden hold on funds, demonstrating that the congressman cares nothing about the law and only about partisan politics. In contrast to this hypocritical silence, 40 Republican senators have requested that GAO look into whether the Biden hold is unlawful.

Capito says influx of migrant kids at U.S. border is a crisis and President Biden is to blame
By
March 17, 2021 - 12:04 pm
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A group of 40 U.S. senators, with U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) leading the way, are asking if President Joe Biden violated the law with his steps, soon after taking office, to suspend funding and construction of the southern U.S. border wall.
“In the weeks that followed, operational control of our southern border was compromised and a humanitarian and national security crisis has ensued,” the senators wrote in a letter to GAO Comptroller Gene L. Dodaro.

Trump Tries Impoundment Control Act To Cut Spending
 
The shutdown is averted, COVID relief and unemployment relief is assured, but President Trump is not done yet.
In the waning days of his adminstration, President Trump has been pushing for the COVID relief bill to include a bigger direct payment – to the point of threatening to veto the whole kit and caboodle (not just the National Defense Authorization Act) in order to make a point about getting more of the pork stripped out and money into the hands of the American people. If Trump was going to be staying in the White House, this whole scenario would have likely played out much differently, because he would have had more leverage beyond Inauguration Day.

Government Executive
Travelers walk through the nearly empty JetBlue terminal at Logan Airport on Nov. 20 in Boston. With the coronavirus surging out of control, the nation's top public health agency pleaded with Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving.
Michael Dwyer / AP
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The Agriculture Department shared Thanksgiving food safety tips on Monday. “Our data shows that consumers can reduce their likelihood of foodborne illness by focusing on good hand hygiene and other food safety practices,” said Dr. Mindy Brashears, USDA undersecretary for food safety. “As home chefs nationwide prepare their Thanksgiving meals, proper handwashing and avoiding cross contamination in the kitchen are critical to keeping your loved ones safe.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people do not travel for the holiday to mitigate the spread of novel coronavirus. Here are some of the other recent headlines from over the weekend and today that you might have missed.