[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1498 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                      Committee 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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Finish It Act''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) constructing physical barriers along the southwest 
        border of the United States has been one element of broader 
        efforts to secure that border during the administrations of 
        President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama, and President 
        Donald Trump;
            (2) President Joe Biden is the first president to block 
        efforts to build a physical barrier along the southwest border;
            (3) since President Biden cancelled southwest border wall 
        construction contracts in April 2021, the Department of Defense 
        has spent approximately $130,000 per day to store construction 
        materials on approximately 20 private sites in Arizona and New 
        Mexico;
            (4) under the Biden administration, the Department of 
        Defense has paid at least $25,000,000 to store border wall 
        construction materials, rather than using those materials to 
        continue constructing a wall along the southwest border, or 
        fortifying the existing wall where necessary;
            (5) the Biden administration has also prevented States from 
        using the existing construction materials to fortify or build 
        walls along their respective borders with Mexico;
            (6) the Department of Defense has spent approximately 
        $300,000,000 on the unused border wall construction materials;
            (7) physical barriers along the southwest border complicate 
        the persistent efforts of transnational criminal organizations 
        to traffic drugs and people into the United States, and enable 
        our law enforcement agencies to respond in a more focused 
        manner to the crisis at the southwest border; and
            (8) given the severe crisis at the southwest border, there 
        is no justification for paying private landowners to store wall 
        construction materials rather than using those materials to 
        secure our border as soon as possible.

SEC. 3. DEPLOYMENT OF EXISTING CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS.

    (a) Plan.--Not later than 15 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a plan 
to utilize, transfer, or donate to States on the southern border of the 
United States all existing excess border wall construction materials, 
including bollards, for the express purpose of constructing a permanent 
physical barrier to stop illicit human and vehicle traffic along the 
border of the United States with Mexico.
    (b) Execution of Plan.--Not later than 15 days after submitting to 
Congress the plan required under subsection (a), the Secretary shall 
work with the Defense Logistics Agency to execute that plan until the 
Department of Defense is no longer incurring any costs to maintain, 
store, or protect the materials specified under subsection (a).
    (c) Requirements of Requesting States.--
            (1) In general.--Any State requesting border wall 
        construction materials made available under this section must 
        certify, in writing, that the materials it accepts will be 
        exclusively used for the construction of a permanent physical 
        barrier to stop illicit human and vehicle traffic along the 
        border of the United States with Mexico.
            (2) Penalties.--
                    (A) In general.--If, by the date that is two years 
                after receipt of materials accepted under this section, 
                a State does not use all such materials for the 
                construction of a permanent physical barrier to stop 
                illicit human and vehicle traffic along the border of 
                the United States with Mexico, the State shall pay to 
                the United States Government an amount equal to the 
                original purchase price of the materials that have not 
                been used for such purpose.
                    (B) No waiver.--The penalty under subparagraph (A) 
                may not be waived.
    (d) Impact of Delay.--If the Secretary of Defense delays in 
submitting the plan required under subsection (a) or executing that 
plan as required under subsection (b), the travel budget of the Under 
Secretary of Defense for Policy shall be decreased by one percent for 
every two days of delay.

SEC. 4. REPORT.

    Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report containing 
the following:
            (1) Any internal correspondence of the Department of 
        Defense that informed the decision to forgo the excess property 
        disposal process of the Department of Defense and instead pay 
        $130,000 per day to store border wall panels.
            (2) A list of the individuals and entities the Department 
        is paying for use of their privately owned land to store unused 
        border wall construction materials.
            (3) An explanation of the process through which the 
        Department contracted with private landowners to store unused 
        border wall construction materials, including whether there was 
        a competitive contracting process and whether the landowners 
        have instituted an inventory review system.
            (4) A description of any investigations by the Inspector 
        General of the Department that have been opened to examine the 
        wasteful policy of paying to store border wall construction 
        materials rather than using those materials to continue 
        building or fortifying the wall on the southwest border of the 
        United States.
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