VIEW LARGER A Kiewit Corporation truck drives along an access road along the border wall east of Quitobaquito Springs at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on July 18, 2020. When President Joe Biden took office and temporarily halted wall construction, piles of steel bollards and other materials were left at the border in Arizona.
The National Defense Authorization Act, also known as the NDAA, passed last year required the government to dispose of excess border wall materials by specific deadlines.
A Department of Defense official said that nearly 60% of these materials were transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California for refurbishing ports of entry or other border security projects.
The remaining 40% was sold to GovPlanet, an online platform for government surplus equipment, under a competitive sales contract that began in June.
The Daily Wire article that broke the news of the materials being sold at auction by GovPlanet, who now owns the wall materials that it bought from the federal government, quoted Arizona Congressman Eli Crane, who voted no on the defense act, as saying the Biden administration was “purposefully hamstringing” Trump before taking office.
Sen. Ted Cruz said, “President Biden is rushing to sell off sections of the wall that are yet to be built,” seemingly unaware of the requirement in the defense bill to dispose of the materials. Cruz voted yes on the NDAA.
And Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on Fox News that the wall materials were being moved because Biden wants to sabotage Trump before he takes office.
“We've been trying to buy this wall for them from them for four years, and they wouldn't sell it to us,” he said.
The federal government under Biden has given border wall materials to Texas on at least two occasions, including at least $6 million worth of leftover border wall materials in 2022, removed from the Arizona border region, which Texas incorporated into its plan to build its own border wall.
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