$39 million in funding for Dover Air Force Base is at risk

DOVER, Del. – Nearly $40 million of funding for the Dover Air Force base is at risk of being diverted to the border wall.

The Dover Air Force Base is home to some of the largest military transport planes in the world.

Sen. Tom Carper (D) said, “We have big airplanes we have C-17’s we have big C-5’s which are even bigger.”

The problem is that the C-5’s don’t fit in the Air Force Base’s current hangars.

Sen. Carper said, “C-5 cannot exist into our existing hangers. Part of it sticks out the back of the hangers. Work cannot be done on the C-5’s for many days in the year because of inclement weather, that’s not good that’s not good for readiness.”

We’re told legislators worked hard to approve $39 million in funding for a new hangar, but that money could be at risk because of President Trump’s national emergency declaration to build a border wall. That means money meant for a new hangar could be pulled and sent to the border.

Sen. Carper said, “The authorization of funding for this has been. Approved by the Congress by Presidents and the idea that we’re going to walk away from that and undermine readiness at the Dover Air Force Base is I think foolhardy.”

Some, however, fired back on social media. A man named Tony said, “Senator, the military came up with $12 billion in projects that can either wait or be cancelled. That savings makes sense and is a good model for other government programs where dollars may be saved, when either not needed or ineffective. think savings Senator.”

George said, “Congress needs to grow up, get serious about the need.”

Moving forward though, Sen. Carper hopes legislators will come together and compare the risks to the benefits.

Sen. Carper said, “My hope is that Senators, Representatives, U.S. Representatives across the country will look at the military construction projects, look at what’s at risk from the decision by the the President to basically take away moneys that have been directed for these military construction projects and use them for other purposes at the border.”

We reached out to the Dover Air Force Base but they declined to comment on the matter.

Right now, given the strong opposition from some sections of Congress, it is not known whether the defense budget proposed by the administration will be passed.

The House of Representatives will try to override Trump’s veto on March 26th.