The Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee has made its version of the Fiscal Year 2021 Appropriations bill public.

The Senate Appropriators, at least the Republicans, are all in for spending money on a border barrier. (It’s a fence, not a wall, people!)

The bill provides $1.9 billon for an 82 miles of border barriers – note that this is not necessarily in areas that don’t already have fences. Some of the new money is to replace dilapidated fencing. We point this out because people like to say that there are more than 700 miles of new barriers, which makes it sound additive – when in fact a lot of this is replacement barrier.

But we don’t recommend that anyone start mixing and pouring concrete just yet. The President-elect and the next administration may find that almost $2 billion ripe for reprogramming to projects they consider a higher priority.