The Joint Finance Committee has allowed Wisconsin to withdraw itself from a lawsuit against the federal government over the Trump administration’s reallocation of $8 million in National Guard funding for a southern border wall.
JFC members wrapped the less than 3-minute session Tuesday with a unanimous vote, making Wisconsin the last state to withdraw from the lawsuit. Former President Donald Trump in 2019 declared a national emergency at the border, allowing his administration to divert up to $6.7 billion nationwide originally appropriated to state National Guard units, military projects and law enforcement.
Wisconsin’s National Guard saw $8 million originally slated for a small arms training facility at Madison’s Truax Airfield taken away.
The Biden administration in 2021 announced the Guard would get back $10.5 million, likely to account for updated project designs, after the Department of Defense started canceling all border wall projects funded by diverted money.
Wisconsin National Guard spokesman Capt. Keith Peter told WisPolitics the contract bid, solicitation and award for the project were completed in the fall of last year.
