WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall , ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, released the following statement after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced the Interior Department is transferring more than five hundred acres of public land, including hundreds in New Mexico, to the U.S. Army for construction of President Trump’s border wall:
“The Trump Interior Department under Secretary Bernhardt is now party to President Trump’s phony and unlawful ‘national emergency’ declaration to build a wall that is ineffective and offensive to New Mexico’s values. The president’s scheme originated as a brazen attempt to go around Congress to raid military construction funding – including $125 million from New Mexico’s bases – to build an ineffective and wasteful border wall. Now, the Interior Secretary is handing over hundreds of acres of public land – including over 200 acres in New Mexico – to the United States Army to move along the president’s political pet project. The Department of the Interior is supposed to protect our natural resources, not endanger them with a border wall that will destroy habitat connectivity, harm wildlife and divide communities. A bipartisan Senate majority has already voted to terminate this ‘emergency’ charade, and the Senate will have the opportunity to speak up again soon. We must again stand up to stop the Trump administration from sacrificing our military, border communities, taxpayers, and our public lands in their reckless pursuit of this wall.”
