To pay for Trump's wall, a hurricane-wrecked base in Puerto Rico loses funding

SALINAS, Puerto Rico —When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico two years ago, it smashed through the National Guard training base here, sending the plaques that Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes gathered over his U.S. Army career into the howl of an unforgiving wind.

The base, known as Camp Santiago, emerged from the storm much like the rest of the island: damaged, shocked and determined to recover against dim economic odds
.
So when Reyes helped secure $331.5 million for the base from the Pentagon’s treasured construction budget, officials thought Maria’s clouds had come with a silver lining.

The money would not only rebuild Camp Santiago. Now, for the first time, an island that regularly sends its men and women to war for the United States would get a modern, hurricane-proof training ground for its guard.

Or so Puerto Rico thought.

Early this month, the Pentagon announced that 127 military construction projects approved by Congress would be defunded under emergency authorities to free up $3.6 billion for President Trump’s border barrier on the southern border with Mexico. Among the shelved construction projects: plans to rebuild Camp Santiago.

For Reyes, the adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, the news was a crushing disappointment. He said the National Guard leadership in Washington assured him that Congress would take up the projects again. Reyes is hopeful but uncertain.

“There’s no guarantee in life,” he said, leavening his discouragement with a dash of fatalism. “Eventually we will die. That’s the only guarantee in life.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/to-pay-for-trumps-wall-a-hurricane-wrecked-base-in-puerto-rico-loses-funding/ar-AAHxMCe?li=BBnbcA1