Finish It Act

II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1498 To require the Secretary of Defense to use, transfer, or donate all excess construction materials intended for the wall on the southwest border of the United States that are being stored by the Department of Defense, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 9, 2023 Mr. WICKER (for himself, Ms. ERNST, Mr. CRUZ, and Mr. COTTON) intro- duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Armed Services A BILL To require the Secretary of Defense to use, transfer, or donate all excess construction materials intended for the wall on the southwest border of the United States that are being stored by the Department of Defense, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Finish It Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 5 It is the sense of Congress that— 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 May 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1498.IS S1498 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1498 IS (1) constructing physical barriers along the 1 southwest border of the United States has been one 2 element of broader efforts to secure that border dur- 3 ing the administrations of President George W. 4 Bush, President Barack Obama, and President Don- 5 ald Trump; 6 (2) President Joe Biden is the first president to 7 block efforts to build a physical barrier along the 8 southwest border; 9 (3) since President Biden cancelled southwest 10 border wall construction contracts in April 2021, the 11 Department of Defense has spent approximately 12 $130,000 per day to store construction materials on 13 approximately 20 private sites in Arizona and New 14 Mexico; 15 (4) under the Biden administration, the De- 16 partment of Defense has paid at least $25,000,000 17 to store border wall construction materials, rather 18 than using those materials to continue constructing 19 a wall along the southwest border, or fortifying the 20 existing wall where necessary; 21 (5) the Biden administration has also prevented 22 States from using the existing construction materials 23 to fortify or build walls along their respective bor- 24 ders with Mexico; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 May 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1498.IS S1498 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1498 IS (6) the Department of Defense has spent ap- 1 proximately $300,000,000 on the unused border wall 2 construction materials; 3 (7) physical barriers along the southwest border 4 complicate the persistent efforts of transnational 5 criminal organizations to traffic drugs and people 6 into the United States, and enable our law enforce- 7 ment agencies to respond in a more focused manner 8 to the crisis at the southwest border; and 9 (8) given the severe crisis at the southwest bor- 10 der, there is no justification for paying private land- 11 owners to store wall construction materials rather 12 than using those materials to secure our border as 13 soon as possible. 14 SEC. 3. DEPLOYMENT OF EXISTING CONSTRUCTION MATE- 15 RIALS. 16 (a) PLAN.—Not later than 15 days after the date of 17 the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall 18 submit to Congress a plan to utilize, transfer, or donate 19 to States on the southern border of the United States all 20 existing excess border wall construction materials, includ- 21 ing bollards, for the express purpose of constructing a per- 22 manent physical barrier to stop illicit human and vehicle 23 traffic along the border of the United States with Mexico. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 May 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1498.IS S1498 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1498 IS (b) EXECUTION OF PLAN.—Not later than 15 days 1 after submitting to Congress the plan required under sub- 2 section (a), the Secretary shall work with the Defense Lo- 3 gistics Agency to execute that plan until the Department 4 of Defense is no longer incurring any costs to maintain, 5 store, or protect the materials specified under subsection 6 (a). 7 (c) REQUIREMENTS OF REQUESTING STATES.— 8 (1) IN GENERAL.—Any State requesting border 9 wall construction materials made available under 10 this section must certify, in writing, that the mate- 11 rials it accepts will be exclusively used for the con- 12 struction of a permanent physical barrier to stop il- 13 licit human and vehicle traffic along the border of 14 the United States with Mexico. 15 (2) PENALTIES.— 16 (A) IN GENERAL.—If, by the date that is 17 two years after receipt of materials accepted 18 under this section, a State does not use all such 19 materials for the construction of a permanent 20 physical barrier to stop illicit human and vehi- 21 cle traffic along the border of the United States 22 with Mexico, the State shall pay to the United 23 States Government an amount equal to the 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 May 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1498.IS S1498 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1498 IS original purchase price of the materials that 1 have not been used for such purpose. 2 (B) NO WAIVER.—The penalty under sub- 3 paragraph (A) may not be waived. 4 (d) IMPACT OF DELAY.—If the Secretary of Defense 5 delays in submitting the plan required under subsection 6 (a) or executing that plan as required under subsection 7 (b), the travel budget of the Under Secretary of Defense 8 for Policy shall be decreased by one percent for every two 9 days of delay. 10 SEC. 4. REPORT. 11 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact- 12 ment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit 13 to Congress a report containing the following: 14 (1) Any internal correspondence of the Depart- 15 ment of Defense that informed the decision to forgo 16 the excess property disposal process of the Depart- 17 ment of Defense and instead pay $130,000 per day 18 to store border wall panels. 19 (2) A list of the individuals and entities the De- 20 partment is paying for use of their privately owned 21 land to store unused border wall construction mate- 22 rials. 23 (3) An explanation of the process through 24 which the Department contracted with private land- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 May 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1498.IS S1498 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1498 IS owners to store unused border wall construction ma- 1 terials, including whether there was a competitive 2 contracting process and whether the landowners 3 have instituted an inventory review system. 4 (4) A description of any investigations by the 5 Inspector General of the Department that have been 6 opened to examine the wasteful policy of paying to 7 store border wall construction materials rather than 8 using those materials to continue building or for- 9 tifying the wall on the southwest border of the 10 United States. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:05 May 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1498.IS S1498 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS