The Department of Homeland Security has received loud criticism from border-security advocates for its snail’s pace at building the wall on the southern border authorized in 2006 by Congress. Now it faces another round of criticism for the building materials the DHS bought for its construction. Instead of American steel for the reinforced border fencing, DHS imported it from China:
House members allied with the domestic steel industry blasted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday for building a fence on the Mexican border with Chinese steel.
“By allowing the use of Chinese pipe [a type of steel], DHS is allowing the U.S. taxpayer to subsidize Chinese production at the expense of the American workers,” Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) said at a press conference. “This is completely unacceptable.”
“This is outrageous, it’s offensive and it’s unacceptable,” charged Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.).
English displayed photos of a portion of the border fence from San Luis, Ariz., that shows pipes marked “China” holding the border fence in place. He said DHS’s Office of Congressional Affairs had indicated it had waived the so-called Buy American rules in order to use the Chinese pipe and tube. The rules normally require the use of U.S. steel in such projects.
How dumb can DHS be? This is a high-profile project with politicians crawling all over it. Duncan Hunter has practically set up his presidential campaign there, and besides the border, which issue has he highlighted in his campaign? Unfair trade with China. Did they think that this would simply go unnoticed?
Hunter didn’t remain quiet after this came out. He noted that the DHS had $800 million in cash, and didn’t have to go bargain-hunting for steel. Fortunately, Hunter noted, the DHS has only build five miles of the barrier in a year, so they have plenty of time to get refunds and start buying American. At that rate, American steelworkers will have 160 years of work supplying DHS on this project!
Normally, I prefer a free-market approach and think the government should get the best deal, just like any other consumer. However, if we’re going to build a border barrier, having a “Made in China” label on it sends a curious message. National-security efforts should involve Americans to the greatest degree possible, and the DHS should have bought American in this case.
Cap’n Ed: Normally, I prefer a free-market approach and think the government should get the best deal, just like any other consumer. However, if we’re going to build a border barrier, having a “Made in China” label on it sends a curious message. National-security efforts should involve Americans to the greatest degree possible, and the DHS should have bought American in this case.
Yep.
Cap’n Ed: How dumb can DHS be? This is a high-profile project with politicians crawling all over it. Duncan Hunter has practically set up his presidential campaign there, and besides the border, which issue has he highlighted in his campaign? Unfair trade with China. Did they think that this would simply go unnoticed?
Hunter didn’t remain quiet after this came out. He noted that the DHS had $800 million in cash, and didn’t have to go bargain-hunting for steel. Fortunately, Hunter noted, the DHS has only build five miles of the barrier in a year, so they have plenty of time to get refunds and start buying American. At that rate, American steelworkers will have 160 years of work supplying DHS on this project!
Help me remember: didn’t DHS build a section of fence and then have to tear it down because they realized that (DOH!) they’d built it on Mexican territory? Now they’ve managed to botch another part of the project in a pretty spectacular manner.
Why, it’s almost as if DHS doesn’t want to build the fence at all!
/sarcasm
While Duncan Hunter is assiduously courting the racist vote the Hispanic vote is mobilizing and becoming a significant force in the southern swing states. Duncan Hunter and his ilk are a large part of the reason.
The problem with playing hate politics in a country like the USA is that pretty soon you run out of people that you can hate without losing more votes than you gain. The Southern strategy was of course a naked bid to pick up the votes of segregationists after the civil rights bill passed. Since then the GOP has tried to find new targets of hate. Gays, single mothers, if you are Ann Coulter, Jews and so on.
Problem is that each group that is targeted in this way remembers. Sixty years ago the GOP had significant support from blacks, it was the party of Lincoln after all. After the GOP went after the Klan vote they lost it all plus the Jewish vote which for obvious reasons does not tolerate intolerance.
So now the only group that the GOP can ‘legitimately’ spew hatred against is the ‘illegal immigrants’. But the Hispanic community know that this is really a code and that they are the ones being targeted by Hunter and his supporters.
This type of race baiting has already cost the GOP California. Reagans state lost to Pete Wilison’s race baiting. If you try really hard you could lose Florida and Texas as well. 116 Electoral college votes thrown away with these tactics.
Now that is a backfire.
Was that the “race-baiting” that led to Prop. 209 passing by 2/3 majority? Or the victory of a Republican statehouse in 1994?
I can’t really fault DHS on this one, I doubt they could find an American manufacturer who will take an order for 700 miles of fence with the probability that 90% of it will be cancelled.
Now, now, Captain, the Chinese have a great deal of expertise in building walls, and we should take advantage of their knowledge and experience.
😉
You also wouldn’t want fence climbers to get lead poisoning.
CE: “How dumb can DHS be?”
In policy, dumb like a fox. The administration doesn’t want a fixed structure that works to be built. Period.
In practice, we don’t have a measuring stick long enough to tell. Their manufacture has all been outsourced… to China.
On the contrary, I don’t mind at all if fence climbers get lead poisoning. Particularly if it is administered at around 2200 feet per second. As it should be – violation of the border is not a trivial matter and should always be met with deadly force. Always.
And a plague, a deadly plague, seize the poltroons who raise the accusations of ‘racism’. Criminals are not a race. A worse plague be upon those in the federal government who are quite evidently guilty of dereliction of duty. They are dishonorable louts. If such describes the upper levels of DHS, so be it.
The “buy American” thing is such tired old horsesh**.
Ed, I have to respectfully disagree.
I don’t particularly care what materials the fence is built out of, or where they come from, hell I don’t even care if they hire illegal aliens to build the damn thing, as long as it gets built and stops (or even slows) the flow of illegal immigrants into America.
You correctly note that they’re taking way too long to build it. But you also note that, because of the huge amount of cash available for the project, fiscal responsibility shouldn’t count. Really? I think the fence is too important to risk a stoppage of what little work is getting done so that the incredibly useless congress can whine and argue for another 20 years about where the steel comes from. Our priorities need to be adjusted here.
This may be a matter of law rather than policy. In most government construction contracts, a agency is required by law to accept the lowest qualified bid. Unless the fence construction contract was a negotiated rather than bid, the DHS contract managers may have had no choice under law but to accept the Chinese steel if it otherwise met contract specifications.
Unlike priviate business contracts where nearly anything the parties agree to is allowable, the terms of goverment contracts are severely restricted by laws enacted to prevent politics from entering into the picture. (Unless, of course, when buying pork in barrels.)
That is why I have seen a constuction contract for a simple concrete sidewalk with five pages of “technical” specifications (how to build the sidewalk) prefaced with 50 pages (literally)of “boilerplate” detailing all the governmental regulations that must be met.
So rather than build this at the expense of steel workers do it at the expense of taxpayers ???
Right on Roci!! I would hate for the illegals to get lead poisoning. We’d have to give them free medical care….oooops I am sorry we already do that. Well we’ll probably get sued, just as good.
I agree Ed.
There are times when you just have to say to hell with better business practices and go American. In fact I think the government should form a new agency to make those determinations. Shouldn’t take more than about 50,000 employee positions. But, hey don’t worry about that either, with current emphasis on down sizing and out sourcing it can likely be run with 5,000 gov people and 45,000 contractors.
“You correctly note that they’re taking way too long to build it.”
They are probably still trying to complete the environmental impact statement.
The problem with playing hate politics in a country like the USA…..
Yes, not giving people a free pass for ignoring the law because of their race or ethnicity is so hateful. Last time I checked, justice was always portrayed as being blindfolded because items like that weren’t supposed to matter in our legal system.
But after listening to Phill, I have become convinced that as a female, I too am oppressed. Phill, you are obviously guilty of a hate crime BECAUSE YOU ARE A MALE. Having two sensitive ll’s and a gender neutral hyphen in your name will not save you. Where’s my reparations check?
“Why, it’s almost as if DHS doesn’t want to build the fence at all!”
Which would be consistent with the North American Community. But then that would be tin-foil hat conspiracy theory.
what they do need to do is to test the steel to see if it satisfies the material specification in the contract.
the chinese have a terrible reputation for substituting inferior metals for what is required by specification.
what, you say that there isn’t any material specs in the request for bids.
well now what do you know about that?
hmmmmmmmmm.
wouldn’t be suprising at all.
C
I see no reason for the ‘buy american’ stance when it’s steel fencing. Now I do want the Army to buy American guns, the Navy to buy American boats, the government in general to buy American computers – but this isn’t political in nature, it’s more wanting control over the items manufacture rather than sabotage…
thx
This is just part of the predicted tango.
While we never knew, or pretended to know what the particular details would be this time around, we did know that the fence would never get built in out lifetimes. Thank god we didn’t pass the other bullshit that went with it.
Duncan is probably upset that Boeing or Lockheed-Martin didn’t get the contract for the physical fence. Boeing did get the cobtract for the “virtual fence” and that has been plagued by all sorts of problems.
Well, at least we don’t have to go far to see a great wall of China….