Pentagon diverts $1 billion from barracks improvements to send troops to border
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – The Pentagon is diverting $1 billion from army barracks upkeep and maintenance funds to send more troops to the Southern border.
In their fiscal plan for the rest of 2025, the Pentagon has decided to move over a billion dollars from Facilities, Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization, a fund that is primarily used for barracks upgrades, to fund President Trump's border mission.
The Pentagon has the discretion to move around some funds between accounts as long as that money has already been appropriated by Congress through a process called reprogramming.
'To kind of go back to this old mantra of the military that we have to just suffer the whole time is kind of disappointing and disheartening, especially when we saw some progress moving forward to go away from that,' John Hartman, a veteran who was stationed at Fort Stewart until 2019 and now lives in Savannah said.
The Government Accountability Office released a scathing report in 2023 identifying unsafe and unsanitary conditions in barracks around the country.
WSAV reported exclusively on some of the poor conditions in the barracks at our own Fort Stewart.
'The desperation and the depression that's caused by the barracks and the housing,' one soldier living in the Fort Stewart barracks at the time said.
Now, the Pentagon is diverting $1 billion of the money that was meant to go toward fixing barracks issues.
'Issues with washing machines not working, mold, stuff like that, ACs going out. It's Fort Stewart, that happening in the middle of the summer is brutal, especially when you've been outside all day in the heat working,' Hartman said of the conditions during his time at the installation.
Even staunch Trump administration supporter Rep. Buddy Carter (GA-01) has advocated for balance.
'I've been to visit the barracks at Hunter Army Airfield, at Fort Stewart. I will tell you they are in need of repair,' he said. 'Sending money to the southern border is not a bad thing. It's a good thing, but at the same time, we can do both.'
Rep. Carter said he's a proponent of replacing the funds with a provision in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' making its way through Congress. However, that bill has not been passed, and the funding is not guaranteed.
'It doesn't matter whether it comes back or not. There's still going to be backlog. There's still going to be expenses that pile up. At the end of the day, you're just kind of digging a deeper hole,' Hartman said. 'It's a complicated situation, but the answer is not taking such a large amount of funding away from bettering the lives of our service members to push it toward this other issue.'
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