The Office of Management and Budget is requesting supplemental appropriations to go towards humanitarian assistance at the Southern Border.
At 12:00 PM EDT, senior officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) discussed a request for 4.5 billion dollars of supplemental appropriations to address the “humanitarian and security crisis at the Southern Border.”
Dana Wade, Associate Director of General Government Programs at the OMB, cited the increasing number of crossings by families and unaccompanied children. This is putting stress on current infrastructure, which has traditionally focused on crossings by unaccompanied adult males.
According to Wade, the bulk of the funding will be used for direct humanitarian purposes, such as providing shelter to migrant children. Others destinations for the funds include operational support for border patrol agents.
She assured that none of the money would go towards the construction of a southern border wall. When asked why the crisis cannot be addressed with the funds already allocated by the Congressional budget and President Trump’s national emergency declaration, she emphasized the immediate and unexpected need for assistance, saying “the situation has become direr.” Wade also said that national emergency funds are intended for border barrier construction through the Department of Defense, so humanitarian assistance must be funded separately.