Pentagon releases possible cuts to pay for wall

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon sent a 20-page list of military construction projects to Congress on Monday that might be slashed to pay for President Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. Democrats expressed hope that by knowing which local projects could be targeted, lawmakers would be likelier to override Trump’s veto of a measure aimed at preventing the cuts.

“Now that members of Congress can see the potential impact this proposal could have on projects in their home states, I hope they will take that into consideration before the vote to override the President’s veto,” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

With the House scheduled to vote Tuesday on overriding Trump’s veto, the spokeswoman for the top GOP vote counter predicted the president will prevail anyway.

“House Republicans have stood strongly with President Trump on securing our nation’s border and overwhelmingly supported his emergency declaration by large margins when we voted on this weeks ago; this will not change,” said Lauren Fine, spokeswoman for No. 2 House GOP leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

The Pentagon document listed hundreds of projects envisioned around the U.S. and world worth around $12.9 billion. Not all will be subject to cuts, the Defense Department wrote, making it difficult to determine exactly which would be vulnerable.

The list included more than $100 million for water treatment plant improvements at Camp Lejeune and airfield security and other work at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina. That is the home state to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who initially said he opposed Trump’s emergency but voted for it. Tillis, who could face a tough re-election fight next year, said the White House had shown a willingness to consider curbing presidential powers to declare future emergencies.

Also listed were an air traffic control tower at Fort Benning, Georgia; a maintenance hangar at Travis Air Force Base in California; and a drone hangar at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea.

In their initial votes, the House and Senate both fell short of the two-thirds majorities that will be needed to override Trump’s veto. That suggests the override effort will fail unless the political tide shifts.