Biden returns $26 million in border wall money to Navy shipyard

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — President Joe Biden is sending $26 million in federal funds back to a U.S. Navy shipyard in Virginia. The money had been diverted by President Donald Trump to pay for a wall along the Mexico border.

The Virginian-Pilot reported Monday that the shipyard money is a sliver of the $3.6 billion that Trump had moved from the Department of Defense to pay for the wall. The Biden Administration is now sending billions of dollars back to a series of military projects.

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth will use the $26 million to address numerous safety violations in one of its buildings. They include a lack of sprinklers, poor placement of fire alarms and no mass notification system.

“The prior Administration’s failure to repair this building has left military personnel working in a high risk environment and undermined Navy operations at the facility,” the White House said in a statement.

The facility builds and repairs U.S. Navy ships. Its life raft inspection and repair operation is the only such facility on the East Coast.