An area congressman who advocates tighter border control, Duncan Hunter, is trying to counter reports that the well-publicized fence along the border with Mexico will cost tens of billions of dollars. Bob Costantini has details from Capitol Hill, where Hunter claims his numbers are much lower.
It is known as the 700 mile fence, though proponents now figure the border barriers approved by Congress in the waning days of republican control will total more than 850 miles. One of its staunchest supporters, San Diego Republican Duncan Hunter wants to counter last week’s estimate by the Congressional Research Office that construction could go as high as 50 billion dollars.
Duncan Hunter: We have actual bids from fence-building companies that say it will cost one twentieth of what the "mission impossible" crowd says it will cost.
That would put the tab for the entire fence, or wall, at little more than two billion dollars, about half of which Congress has already approved. Hunter is worried about the new Democratic majority.
Duncan Hunter: …trying to subvert the will of the American people. The American people built a border fence in San Diego. It’s a double fence. It works.
But 51 st District Democrat Bob Filner, who represents the state’s entire border with Mexico, says despite the law passed last year, the fence will never be built.
Bob Filner: The administration doesn’t want it. The Congress didn’t put in very much funding, last year. The new Congress will not fund this wall. So I think it’s a moot question to start arguing the cost. I just don’t think it’s going to be built.
Hunter insists the fence is set in the law signed by President Bush late last year, even if not a single post has been set. From Capitol Hill, Bob Costantini, KPBS News.
