Posted on 08/12/2019 11:35:37 AM PDT by BeauBo
More than 330 miles of new "border wall capability" will be in place by the end of 2020, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said Monday, noting that repairs to the wall in the San Diego area bring the current total to "57 miles that we have put in."
An additional 47 miles is under contract. Provost told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
I am not making a decision today for whom to vote. So there is plenty of time.
I merely indicated how he could have got construction started about 24 months a\go given the amount of time he spent on it during the campaign.
The decision to not indict Hillary clinton had a serious flaw. There is no “intent” standard which excuses her security violations. Also she destroyed evidence, AFTER receiving a warrant.
The decision too indict is a judgment call, unlike the facts of the case. Any one else in a position of responsibility could review the call and come to a different conclusion.
Trump could have asked about that in his interviews and hired someone who would move the indictment forward. But he hired sessions, whose claim to fame was he went after MS 13 and let the Clintons, the FBI and Obama run a coup on the president.
I stand corrected.. Only 1600 miles to go!!!
I know one thing.. If they can climb it, or tunnel under it, it’s not built right!!!
Huh.
The fact that you’ve never worked for a living may explain your inability to view politics, and Trump’s performance, realistically.
We Build the Wall announced phase two will start soon. We can only hope.
Sarcasm
“he could have got construction started about 24 months a\go”
Congress had to fund it, and a lot of different people’s votes are needed.
A big Federal Program typically takes several years in analysis and documentation, before being added to the budget. There are legal requirements for formal cost estimates, that must pass muster and be certified by multiple organizations like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the Executive Branch.
Beyond the explicit and time consuming requirements in law, there are lots of internal rules and policies that are also time consuming, to get the needed analyses completed and certified.
Politically, there is also a backroom “sausage-making” process, where various members negotiate to get some of the work in their districts, to their donors, or to directly benefit themselves or their families. Rounds of tradeoffs are typically made.
The President was able to get the first two years of funding added through (painful) exceptional means, while the analysis and justifications were completed (it was finally submitted in December 2018).
Even that earliest funding was late in coming however, because of the Congress’ late approval of the budget in those years. The Government’s fiscal year runs from 1 October to 30 September. Instead of having the FY2017 budget passed on time to start on October 1st, 2016, it was not passed until May 5th, 2017. The FY2018 budget was not passed until February 2019.
Federal Contracting is also restricted by many laws and rules. Initial Federal contracting lead time can be a few years, but one year is about normal. The initial wall contract, for the West side of the Port of Entry in Calexico California, was awarded at the end of February in 2018. Contractors normally get two to six months from their formal Notice to Proceed, to actually start work on construction projects.
Construction itself is normally a multi-year process, typically awarded as a Design-Build, or Design-Bid-Build contract. First Surveys and soil samples are conducted, blueprints are finalized, and certified by licensed civil engineers. Then the Contractor can either start construction (Design-Build), or a second competition is held for the actual construction (Design-Bid-Build).
When Congress authorizes money for construction, those funds are good for five years before expiring (if unspent), because that is the typical time frame required.
In addition to all of these onerous requirements and delays that are inherent to the funding, contracting and construction processes, the Wall Program faced almost unprecedented delays from the attacks by the Left. Several lawsuits had to proceed from District Court to the Circuit Court and to the Supreme Court to be resolved.
Lets face it - any tactical errors early in the program would have put the whole program strategically at risk.
Regardless of all of that, all of the construction funded so late in 2017 is now already completed, except for a tiny part of it, to add gates to old openings in the fence around Brownsville (which has been awarded on contract).
The 2017 work includes a new 14 mile Primary Barrier in San Diego, that can stop the kind of mob rush caravan tactics that we saw there last year. That barrier has already significantly reduced crossings there, and a 30 foot secondary barrier is half done behind that (with 2018 funding), which will pretty much nail that sector shut by January - the biggest city on the border.
The West side of the Port of Entry in Calexico is complete, reducing attacks on Border Patrol Officers by 85% (11 miles on the East side is now underway). 20 miles are complete West of El Paso, which had been a leading drug smuggling corridor, and 4 miles in downtown El Paso have closed what was a rather simple and convenient walk for illegals to enter the USA in just a few minutes.
The preparations required for contracting, exercising eminent domain, and other long lead time activities have been worked, so that now the execution of funds is faster than it was before.
The design has been finalized, the route has been detailed, segments prioritized and eminent domain actions have been prepared. The substantive lawsuits have been won. Standing contracts have been established, with pools of per-approved contractors prepared to rapidly bid on task orders, and get quickly to work.
All that is needed after the careful analysis and preparation, is the funding. President Trump delivered the big money bomb (through his emergency declaration) right on schedule, as the Program was ready to enter full scale deployment.
That is where we are now. The 40 miles from 2017 funding is complete, and the 80 miles from 2018 funding is underway in earnest. The 2019 funding, and the emergency funding, will build hundreds of miles worth of barrier - and it is being placed on contract and starting construction faster than in past years - the first of those projects are preparing to break ground this month and next. Material deliveries and site prep is already underway.
The biggest, hardest, most expensive and most important parts of the job are getting done, even if no money at all comes next year. The first 300-400 miles, including the bulk of the Rio Grande Valley, is the main battle in controlling illegal immigration. After that, every incremental mile starts getting easier, cheaper, and less important (Except for about 50 miles around Laredo, the last major city where barrier is really needed, and no announcement has yet been made).
I anticipate the President running circles around the Dems next year as well. If he comes through with anything near what he is asking for ($8.7 billion), he will have enough money to contract almost all the remaining planned barrier, in his first term.
This Administration took the long view of the whole program to secure the border, and control immigration, and has systematically, aggressively and successfully driven transformative progress, from its first week.
The technology programs deploying to the border, the changes made to remove welfare incentives from immigrants, to improve the ability to process and deport illegals, as well as new deals with Mexico and Guatemala, are all very powerful initiatives underway as well.
It is not easy. It required a lot of determined effort, and a lot of sophisticated expertise and strategizing, to make this kind of progress, in the face of such determined and well resourced opposition.
Maybe because Trump is overperforming 100 times better than any Democrat running? I can’t believe that you actually think in this day and age with these pervailing mores and demographics that we could get someone more conservative as president than Trump. It’s a miracle we actually got someone elected as good and as much on our side as he is (and light-years better than McCain/Romney).
Obviously, the idea of Marxists in power doesn’t scare you, but I think I’ll continue to fret over it myself. Hopeful, by election time you’ll change your mind and join conservatives in re-electing President Trump. After all his unprecedented deal with Mexico has already caused a significant drop in illegal crossings and the wall is starting to really get rolling. Or am I wrong in assuming you probably don’t want Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, etc. appointing Supreme Court justices and their Congressional proxy AOC deciding our border and environmental policies?
your first sentence is incorrect and I stopped reading.
You must have not followed the emergency declaration. You see congress didn’t have to fund it. In my first post i said, the day after the election he should have asked Ryan and Turtle to fund. That was with republican majorities in both houses. IF they didn’t by Jan 21, 2017, then he should have declared the emergency he had been yelling about for 18 months. The the contract period.
That’s how you start building two years ago.
being conse4=vative in speech is not the dame as performing.
You don’t understand what I’m saying. I will vote for your promise the fort time. the second i vote for results. He is failing on two of there major reasons i voted for him. Why would i fall for that a second time.
What good is a conservative who fails 40% of the major issues. no one here is proposing to vote for a democrat. That’s a straw man in your argument.
Help yourself, if it makes you sleep at night.
“I stand corrected.. Only 1600 miles to go!!!”
To justify funding requests, DHS/CBP had to analyze the hell out of the border, and they determined that only 1,100 miles need barrier (it all needs constant surveillance and response capability). Pretty much, if you can’t drive a 4WD vehicle through, or walk to a road in a day, barrier doesn’t slow down people enough to have much value (as long as intruders can be detected and tracked to intercept with technology).
That 1,100 miles is painstakingly prioritized. The first 300-400 miles do the bulk of the job (border cities and the Rio Grande Valley).
If the President gets the full amount he is requesting for next year ($8.7 billion, which will probably require some dramatic trick, like this year’s emergency declaration), he will have roughly enough money to contract the whole 1,100 miles in his first term (with construction running through the following year or two).
It appears to me that the CBP Chief, Carla Provost, is looking how much barrier will be standing at the end of 2020 (she says 330). That is what impacts the operations that she is focused on - stopping illegal entry. Only construction that is completed at that time counts for her.
Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, who commands the US Army Corps of Engineers (which does the contracting for the wall building) looks at it from the perspective of getting the contracting actions completed (his mission).
Once the contracts are awarded, and the funding is legally committed, he refers to those miles as “in the Ground”, that is to say, as good as done, from a management perspective. Responsibility after that is all on the contractor to complete construction. LTG Semonite predicts 450 miles “in the Ground” at the end of 2020.
That would leave about 650 miles left to fund/contract with FY2020 or beyond funding. $8.7 billion in FY 2020 would do that many miles if the average cost is $13 million per mile, or less. That is a quite reasonable average cost for rural barrier, outside of the Rio Grande Valley (where massive hurricane-rated levee wall can run $25 million/mile). West of El Paso, in the flat desert, the Trump Administration put in 20 miles of bollards (with upgraded roads and sensors) for under $4 million/mile.
“You must have not followed the emergency declaration. You see congress didn’t have to fund it.”
Emergency declaration cannot produce enough money to pay for the whole program. A “half-assed” partial barrier program is easily by-passed by traffickers, by just driving their bus another hour down the road before sending their passengers across.
A truly “half-assed” knee jerk attempt to declare emergency right away, would likely produce a reaction that would either cause it to fail in court, or provoke a reaction in the next year’s budget. Strategic failure, due to poor planning.
Effective border security requires that the whole program (infrastructure, people and technology) be operated and maintained in perpetuity. That funding requires being included in the baseline budget.
Everything seems so easy from your armchair - why haven’t you just done it. Obviously, you just don’t care enough - therefore, “F” for you.
I understood what you were saying. I just think it’s a short-sighted, perfectionistic way of looking at things that can lead to dangerous results. Failing at 40% of what you most want (although even there I don’t think you’re being fair) is surely better than having a Democrat fail at 100% and in a much more drastic fashion (making illegal border crossing legal, free health care for illegals, etc.).
And no, I have never thought you would vote for a Democrat. But if you voted for Trump and he now loses a vote that will help his Democrat opponent. I don’t see how anyone could deny that. If Trump’s voters stay home or vote third-party a radical leftist will take power and rapidly excellerate the destruction of our nation. Sure, maybe the nation is doomed anyway, but I’d really rather have the collapse come after I’m gone if we have a choice in slowing it down…
Perfectionist?
I’ve said what i have to say on this thread. Tired of the subject probably be a new thread along in the next day or so.
Best wishes.
Sometimes, the serious people here aren’t tuned-in to ‘sarcasm’ - much less irony.
I know people with triple digit IQs don’t need sarcasm warnings however. When you ask dumb question and get a sarcastic remark back, you night make that your first guess.
Maybe you need to know more people - and more of Life.
we were discussing a small population here were we not. Maybe you need toi stop being so presumptious about someone you have no idea about.,
There should be a question mark (?) after your ‘not’, and no ‘i’ after your ‘to’.
And I’m not sure we’re discussing a ‘small’ population.
I’m not presumptUous. I take people here at their word(s).
(We seem to be always saying ‘goodnight’- so,
G’Nite!)
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