The Biden administration announced Friday that it returned more than $2 billion in military funds that former President Donald Trump had diverted to the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border barrier, while the Department of Defense (DOD) simultaneously announced that those funds will be used for overseas military construction projects.
Instead of border wall construction, the DOD said Friday that the $2.2 billion will be used for 66 projects across 16 countries, three U.S. territories, and 11 states.
A memo (pdf) released by the Pentagon reveals that the majority of the funds, or around $1.26 billion, will be spent overseas in places including Hungary, Japan, Italy, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Germany, Romania, Spain, and other countries.
According to the memo, in one instance, about 59 million will be spent on a regional munitions storage facility in Slovakia. In Jordan, $18 million will be spent by the Pentagon on an air traffic control tower and about $34 million will be doled out for a munitions storage area.
Nearly $10 million will be spent at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the replacement of a “working dog treatment facility,” it showed. The Navy will spend about $53 million, meanwhile, on an “electrical system upgrade” in Bahrain.
About $608 million will be spent on military projects in the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Within the United States, about $300 million will be spent on military projects in Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, and several other states.