Border wall: Trump eyes taking money from California flood projects to pay costs

Jan. 11--President Trump is considering taking more than $2 billion already approved by Congress for flood control projects in California to help fund the building of his controversial border wall, according to a Democratic lawmaker.

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, said in an interview Friday that the Army Corps of Engineers presented a list of funded-but-unbuilt projects -- including new levees to protect homes, schools and businesses on San Francisco Bay's shoreline in North San Jose -- to the president as he headed to Texas on Thursday to bolster his case for a $5.7 billion border wall.

The Army Corps list that Garamendi's office provided to this news organization highlighted projects in California and Puerto Rico from a list of $13.9 billion in flood control and disaster relief efforts in states, including Texas, Florida, West Virginia and Louisiana. It includes $2.47 billion that had been approved in California for flood control projects along the American and Yuba rivers near Sacramento, Lake Isabella in Kern County and the Santa Ana River in Southern California.

Bay Area officials said Friday that they are stunned by the possibility that money already approved by Congress for an important flood control project on San Jose's shoreline could somehow be shifted to Trump's wall project.

The project would build four miles of new levees around Alviso and nearby areas over the next four years to protect flood-prone communities in major winter storms, and as the bay's water level continues to rise from climate change.

"This bothers the hell out of me," said Dick Santos, a member of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. "I will do everything I can to protect that money."

The White House press office did not respond Friday to questions about the list of Long Term Disaster Recovery Investment Plan projects funded under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, and signed into law by Trump last year.

Garamendi, a former California lieutenant governor and insurance commissioner, sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees federal water projects. Asked how he knew the highlighted projects on the list were candidates for diverting funding for a border wall, Garamendi said: "A little birdie told me so. There are ways we find out what's going on."

"Each of these projects are essential for the preservation of life and property," Garamendi said.

The New York Times also reported late Thursday that the White House had "directed the Army Corps of Engineers to determine whether it can divert for wall construction $13.9 billion allocated last year," citing Defense Department and congressional officials who insisted on anonymity.

The idea didn't sit well with Trump's fellow Republicans in Congress from California. Parker Williams, communications director for Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, said "Congressman LaMalfa has already expressed concern with this idea, and he believes that any move would need careful consideration before acting on it."

Garamendi said Congress had authorized and appropriated money for the listed projects but the work had not yet been contracted out, so the funding was considered "unobligated." He also noted that the only identified projects were in California and Puerto Rico, while those in Republican-led states were untouched.

"There's a political dynamic in play here," Garamendi said.

Trump, after saying all week he was considering declaring a national emergency to try and push through a border wall without congressional approval, seemed to back off Friday, but left the door open.

"What we're not looking to do right now is national emergency," Trump said Friday afternoon, flanked by law enforcement officials at a White House press event. "I'm not going to do it so fast."

But that did little to comfort California officials' concerns that their water projects are off the hook.

Santos noted that the $177 million South Bay Shoreline Project has been in the planning stages for years, and that work has been scheduled to start this summer.

The new earthen levees, which are planned to be 15 feet high, replacing old levees that are roughly 5 to 10 feet high, is part of ongoing restoration efforts to convert former Cargill industrial salt ponds in the South Bay back to tidal marshes for fish and wildlife.

"That project is vital for Silicon Valley," Santos said Friday. "It protects the wastewater treatment plant, Levi's Stadium, medical facilities, schools, tech companies and the homes of thousands of people. We're trying to avoid becoming another New Orleans after Katrina."

Sam Schuchat, executive officer of the California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency based in Oakland that has been working closely on the project with the water district and the Corps, said it would be "outrageous" if Trump tried to shift money that Congress approved for flood projects last year.

"We've been working on this since 2002," he said. "This area is 15 feet below sea level. They had a huge flood in the 1980s. Alviso is probably the most at-risk place along San Francisco Bay for flooding. People die in floods, and property is destroyed."

Schuchat said that his agency is exploring every option to keep the money, including speeding up the process to sign contracts with construction companies, because once contracts are signed, it becomes much more difficult to take away the funding.

The other projects included long-planned work to reduce flood risk in the Sacramento area and Central Valley, including finishing a levee around Marysville, a flood-prone area in Yuba County, raising Folsom Dam and expanding flood protection on the American River to reduce risk in Sutter and Sacramento counties.

Democrats say that they support border security but have refused Trump's requested $5.7 billion funding for a border wall, a core campaign pledge that they consider a waste. The resulting standoff with the president, who has refused to sign spending bills without it, has left much of the federal government shuttered for what will become a record duration Saturday.

With no sign of compromise in the works despite mounting pressure on both sides to reopen the government, Trump has repeatedly suggested he could declare an emergency at the border and use that authority to divert unspent funds for a border wall.

Congressional Democrats said they will fight any move to shift the money.

"Congress allocated these taxpayer dollars for vital flood protection projects all over the country, including projects that safeguard Sacramento and over half a million of my constituents," Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui of Sacramento said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee on Thursday night. "It's unconscionable that President Trump wants to take Sacramento's flood protection funding away to build his border wall, which he repeated, time and time again, that Mexico would pay for."

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California Water Projects eyed for Border Wall Funding

American River, Common Features: $1,565,750,000

American River Watershed (Folsom Dam Raise): $216,523,185

Isabella Lake: $258,231,000

Santa Ana River Mainstem: $161,643,000

South San Francisco Shoreline: $177,200,000

Tule River/Lake Success Enlargement (Success Dam): $74,000,000

Yuba River Basin: $13,586,000

Source: Army Corps of Engineers, Rep. John Garamendi

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