This first $1 billion was from the easiest pot of money to tap into - nobody’s ox was gored.
The Pentagon failed to meet its recruiting goals for the year, so the extra pay budgeted for new recruits that did not show up, was just left over. So nobody is having any money taken from their pet project.
This is the Pentagon’s equivalent of digging loose change from between the cushions of the couch.
Once they start taking the money from specific Military Construction projects (which required the Emergency Declaration), there will likely be much louder squealing.
I guess that any method used this year to re-program funds for the border wall, will likely be dis-allowed in next year’s appropriation (likely the authority to re=program at all). So they will likely have to get all they can done and spent before the end of this Fiscal Year (30 September).
To meet that deadline would require a flurry of contract awards, that will dwarf what we have seen so far in the wall building program. We could potentially see the first new awards as early as next month if they had some task orders all ready pre-solicited, but more likely May and June will see awards starting to drop, and continuing through Summer.
Usually ground breaking is about 10 weeks after award, so as we get toward the end of the year, more and more crews will be working simultaneously.
Its going to be fun.
“Once they start taking the money from specific Military Construction projects (which required the Emergency Declaration)...”
I wonder if some of those Military Construction funds could be used to build Military bases on the southern border? We really need our military on the border, and what better way then to build bases there?