GOP coronavirus bill replaces money for Pentagon projects Trump raided for border wall

Legislation includes hundreds of millions for projects whose funding the administration had canceled and redirected to the border.

By Erica Werner

and

Karoun Demirjian

July 28, 2020 at 12:57 p.m. EDT

Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Republicans propose to send some of the new stimulus spending to the Pentagon to make up for money redirected by the president away from military programs. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg News)

Senate Republicans’ new $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus package would restore hundreds of millions of dollars in Pentagon spending that the Trump administration redirected to help pay for building President Trump’s border wall.

Projects involving Navy aircraft and ships and Air Force planes that the Trump administration canceled this year so the money could pay for the wall have reappeared in the GOP package, introduced Monday. The programs are part of $30 billion in defense spending in the GOP plan to which Democrats are objecting. Republicans are defending the spending as important to protect jobs and help the Pentagon cope with the impacts of the coronavirus.