[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3245]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE COST OF BORDER WALLS

  (Mr. HIGGINS of New York asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS of New York. Mr. Speaker, the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology Review reported that the cost of then-candidate Trump's wall 
along the southern border will be up to $40 billion for every 1,000 
miles of wall. With the potential of a 2,000-mile wall along the 
border, American taxpayers can expect to pay up to $80 billion for a 
wall at the southern border--$80 billion for a wall we were told Mexico 
would pay for, and Mexico said they will not pay for that wall.
  Last year, a leading Republican Governor also suggested that we 
should explore building a wall along the northern border. The northern 
border wall would be 5,000 miles. A northern border wall would cost 
about $400 billion using the MIT report estimates. Obviously, Canada, 
like Mexico, will not pay for a silly wall.
  Mr. Speaker, $480 billion to wall in the United States. What is it 
with Republicans and walls? What are they afraid of? What we need is a 
new infrastructure bill not to build walls, but to build bridges and 
roads and to build infrastructure to put Americans back to work and to 
grow the American economy.

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