WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and U.S. Senators Ted Cruz, R-Texas., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, today introduced the FINISH IT Act, legislation that would force the Department of Defense (DoD) to allow millions of dollars of unused border wall panels already owned by the U.S. government to be used to extend the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The legislation follows an investigation by Armed Services Committee Republicans that revealed the DoD is spending $47 million per year, or $130,000 per day, to store the panels at various locations across the Southwest. The FINISH IT Act would require the federal government to deploy the materials or transfer them to state governments who will use them for wall construction.

“President Biden could not have created a worse border crisis if he tried, but he continues to stand in the way of a solution,” Wicker said. “As Senate Republicans revealed earlier this year, his Administration is forcing the Department of Defense to spend millions of dollars a year to let border panels go unused when they could be used to secure our border. It is time for the President to put these materials to use and finish the wall.”

“President Biden’s policies have created the worst border crisis that the United States has ever faced,” said Cruz. “This administration is utterly lawless, and that lawlessness is not just endangering the safety and security of Americans, but also draining America’s Treasury. We are paying extra to not build a wall on our southern border. We need to build a wall to secure our southern border, and I’m proud to work with Ranking Member Wicker and my colleagues to force the Defense Department to do its job and finish our border wall.”

“The Southern border will go from crisis to catastrophe due to President Biden’s own failure,” said Ernst. “Instead of securing the border, the Biden administration canceled border wall projects and left materials to rack up dirt and dough. I’m committed to solutions to stem the Biden Border Crisis from continuing to impact every state. Biden must put these border materials to use, end the taxpayer-funded waste, and stop the unprecedented flow of illegal migrants. Let’s finish the job and build the wall!”

Click here to read the legislation.