Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, wrote in an opinion piece on Monday that President Joe Biden’s administration should provide states with the means to build their own barriers on the southern border.
Ernst wrote in the Washington Examiner: “The Biden administration is allowing about $250 million worth of paid-for border wall materials to sit unused in the desert, spending $50 million a year, or $130,000 a day, to guard them.”
The Iowa Republican said she saw these materials for herself while visiting the border in Yuma, Arizona earlier this month.
She added, “I’m sick of the hypocrisy and the Biden administration wasting our tax dollars by allowing already purchased parts to rust in the desert. That’s why I’m leading the BUILD IT Act to force Biden to transfer the border wall materials to states to finish the wall. State and local leaders, who deal with the impact of Biden’s policies every day, understand the dire reality of this situation.”
Ernst introduced the legislation last May. It would require the federal government to provide states with materials to complete border barriers if requested.
The senator said, “While Biden continues to downplay and deflect the invasion he has allowed at our southern border, I am working to end it.”
She added, “Instead of expending energy explaining away the crisis of its own making, the Biden administration should solve it. The tools are at its disposal. Let’s start by tearing down the fence protecting unused materials, finishing the wall with already paid-for parts, and securing the border.”