I know what all the President has been beset with, whom he has had to work with, what hoaxes he has had to work around, etc. and I’m not a fan of Coulter. Still, it will have been 4 years on Jan. 20, 2021.
> “Still, it will have been 4 years on Jan. 20, 2021.”
Doesn’t seem like you really know “what all the President has been beset with, whom he has had to work with, what hoaxes he has had to work around, etc. “.
There is still more than half a year (about 7 months) to go before Jan 20, 2021, your post would have sounded more honest had you simply lamented it took 3 and a half years to get to this point, instead of using a 4-year mark to emphasize your dissatisfaction.
“Still, it will have been 4 years on Jan. 20, 2021.”
Big construction projects have long lead times, and big Government Programs even more so.
The budget process requires cost studies to be done and independently evaluated before including them in the permanent budget (anything built will have to funded for operations and maintenance in perpetuity).
The President ordered a comprehensive study (including costs) on his fifth day in office, in Executive Order 13767. He gave them six months. Due to all the Congressional push back, and all the what-ifs they were peppered with, the final plan was not accepted by Congress until December of 2018.
Although the then Republican Congress provided a budget wedge to get started (about $1.4 billion per year, starting in FY18, and $400 in change dug out of the budget’s sofa cushions in FY17), the understanding was that once the plan was approved, the funding for full scale deployment would follow, even if a comprehensive immigration deal could not be negotiated.
The Democrats took the Congress in the 2018 elections, and reneged on the agreement. The President had prepared for the contingency, and freed up emergency funding, even before the final Democrat budget reached his desk for signature.
When full scale funding was thus authorized in Feb 2019, the contracting lead time, which precedes the construction lead time, began in earnest.
The bottom line is that we are now in full scale deployment (about a mile a day, totaled across all the crews), and funded to stay at that rate through 2021. The administration is on track to contract out about $12 billion this year, and get the money obligated (i.e. unavailable for any other purpose). By comparison, the total contracted in 2017, 2018, and 2019 combined was about $6 billion - most of that in 2019, mostly in the second half.
The Comprehensive Plan for Full Operational Control of the Southern Border called for about $25 billion over five years, 1,100 miles of effective barrier, thousands of additional full time positions, and several technology programs.
The current reported Trump Program (designated segments, with funding already delivered to the accounts), is 738 miles. 221 miles of existing barrier has been determined to be operationally effective (pre-existing bollards). That brings the barrier total to 959 miles.
$3.6 billion in FY20 Military Construction funds have been announced for diversion to Wall building, but not yet transferred - which is generously enough for another 141 miles, to build out the 1,100 mile number from the plan.
They may just be waiting till the current money on account is contracted and obligated, before taking the heat of transferring those funds (which must be pulled from other approved projects), or they may even delay that until after the election.
But the bottom line is that the whole required barrier Program is already funded, and on track to be baked into the cake before Jan. 20, 2021.
Each mile of the border was painstakingly analyzed for operational need, precise barrier routing planning, and cost. The segments were prioritized.
The first 300-400 miles on the priority list, account for well over 80% of historical illegal traffic (border cities and the Rio Grande Valley). Although the land acquisition issues along the Rio Grande have caused construction there to lag, the rest of the high priority segments (like San Diego and Yuma) will be effectively done before Jan. 20, 2021.
So the most important miles have been front loaded, for completion this year. They are working to complete the required land acquisition in Texas before the end of the year. The Rio Grande Valley Sector is already contracted (over 100 miles) and the Laredo Sector contracts have begun to drop.
So even if not all of the needed miles of barrier will be standing on Jan. 20, 2021, the bulk of what is operationally needed will be. That is to say, illegal traffic will be substantially impeded. The new Wall System is working even better than projected, and it was designed to meet a standard that they called Full Operational Control.
In addition to the Barrier Program, the Technology Programs (including so-called “Virtual Wall”) have also gone into full scale deployment, and are rolling out faster than barrier. Technology will monitor every mile of the border, and many of the Programs extend the area of detection and tracking deep into the USA and Mexico.
Also, Military support to border security has expanded greatly (like predator drone patrols), and seems to have been more strongly institutionalized in organizations and long term budgets.
San Diego’s nearly completed Wall System has made a dramatic impact there, and that effect is going to spread rapidly down the priority list. By the end of this year, effects should be impressive. We are on track for roughly full operational control of the whole Southern Border at the end of next year - 18 months from an historic achievement.
By many measures, this is the biggest border security Program in human history.