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Pfluger: President Biden’s Decision to Stop Construction on Border Wall Could Be Illegal

With the crisis on the southern border intensifying, Congressman Pfluger joined 71 Members of Congress and 40 Republican Senators in calling on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the Biden Administration for suspending congressionally-appropriated border wall construction contracts.

In a letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the lawmakers wrote, “We are writing to be added as co-requesters of a March 17, 2021 letter, signed by 40 United States Senators, requesting the Government Accountability Office’s legal opinion on the actions of the Biden Administration to suspend border wall construction and to order a freeze of funds provided by Congress for that purpose, which we believe violated the Impoundment Control Act.”

Highlights of the Senate letter, which the Members of Congress joined, include:

  • In the weeks that followed suspension of wall system construction, operational control of our southern border was compromised, and a humanitarian and national security crisis ensued;
  • The President’s actions directly contributed to this crisis;
  • The President’s actions are a violation of federal law and infringe on Congress’s constitutional power of the purse, including violation of the Impoundment Control Act, as interpreted by GAO; and
  • The request of GAO’s legal opinion on the matter.