Money To Fix PG County Daycare Sewage Going To Trump Wall: Report

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD — Sewage is backing up into the classrooms, restrooms, and kitchens of a daycare used by members of the Air Force at Joint Base Andrews, and money that was supposed to fix it will instead be spent on President Trump's wall, according to a report.

Maryland Matters reports that children ranging from six weeks to five years old have to be moved to other parts of the child development center when there are sewage overflows, and the kitchen can't be used to make meals when it happens.

Officials earmarked $13 million for a child care center to be built in 2020, but it ended up being one of the 127 projects that saw their funding diverted by the Trump Administration to a $3.6 billion section of wall along the border with Mexico.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) toured the child care center last week, and they both slammed the Trump Administration for the move in a statement.

“It is outrageous that military families – military children – are being forced to pay for the president’s wall,” Cardin said. “What the president is doing is unconstitutional. It’s a power grab, it’s against our national security, and it dishonors the men and women of our military. We must do better for these families.”

Brown added that Trump originally promised that Mexico would pay for the wall, not U.S. citizens.

"The families at Joint Base Andrews has been waiting for years for a modern and safe building, and now they’re being told to wait so that the President can fulfill a campaign promise," he said. "This abuse of power will hurt morale, degrade readiness and make America less safe. President Trump should not build his ineffective, xenophobic vanity project on the backs of our service members and military families."

They argue that the issue is having a negative effect on members of the Air Force who must suffer "severe financial strain" by using a more expensive option off-base.