JANUARY 10, 2025|
Photo – Senator John Barrasso – Bigfoot99 file photo
In Washington, D.C. on Thursday, U.S. Senator John Barrasso introduced legislation requiring unobligated COVID-19 funds to be used to finish building the wall along the southern border. Senator Barrasso spoke about this bill today on the Senate floor.
The new bill designates unused federal COVID-19 funds to be used to continue the construction of the southern border wall as an illegal immigration crisis continues and voters cited the issue as one of the most important, going into the presidential election last year.
Barrasso is Wyoming’s senior senator. The senator said in a floor speech on Thursday that the new legislation is called “The Build the Wall Act.”
The Build the Wall Act would establish the “Southern Border Wall Construction Fund” and require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use any unobligated Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) to construct and maintain physical barriers along the southern border of the United States.
In a written statement, Senator Barrasso said, ““Before the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies, we were well on our way to a secure and safe southern border. Now, every state is a border state and dangerous criminals and cartels are entering our communities.”
The co-sponsors of this legislation include U.S. Wyoming’s other senator, Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), as well as Jim Risch (R-Idaho), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Roger Marshall (R-Kans.).
Barrasso’s proposal to use unspent COVID-19 relief money for the wall comes after Republicans criticized the Department of Treasury’s latest guidance on the COVID-19 State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds granted in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
Last year, the Treasury Department changed its guidance on unspent COVID-19 relief funds, stating “that qualifying recipients can use remaining funds on a broad range of uses to fund affordable housing serving very low-income families.”
Republicans sought to prevent the change last week, but they were blocked in the Senate by Democrats in a party-line vote.
