KITTERY, Maine — The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard could lose over $150 million in funding to major projects in order to fund President Trump's efforts to build a border wall along the southern border, according to documents sent to Congress Monday.
The Portland Press Herald reports the 21-page document from the Department of Defense detailed hundreds of projects for facilities across the country named projects to upgrade a dry dock and cranes at the Kittery facility.
The funding was approved by lawmakers and signed by President Trump but was not finalized by The Pentagon.
The news comes after President Trump declared a national emergency at the border--something Congress is moving to block.
"I'm a little upset that now we're picking and choosing what's more important, national defense or building a wall," Richard Smith, President of the Metal Trades Council at the shipyard said Monday morning. "Both can be done."
“This attempt to circumvent Congress’s constitutional authority to direct federal spending is not only a threat to America’s longstanding principle of checks and balances, but also to our national security – because the funds for his wall would come from important, congressionally-approved military construction projects, including potentially at Maine’s own Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,” Maine Sen. Angus King told the Press Herald in a statement.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins feared this exact impact when she visited the shipyard in March.
"It's the perfect example of a military construction project that Congress approved the funds for that was requested by the Navy and the president signed into law. It is not clear if those specific accounts would be robbed," Collins told NEWS CENTER Maine at the time.
A spokesperson for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard would not comment on the matter, according to the Portland Press Herald.