Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Worth district office has issued a Prequalification of Sources notice for contractors interested in bidding on up to $8 billion of future U.S.-Mexico border wall construction, indicating that the Pentagon is set to come through with the funds that President Donald Trump requested as part of his February national emergency declaration.
• The border projects that will be up for bid are expected to include fencing; wall; patrol roads; access roads; lighting systems; access gates; drainage improvements; levee walls; and other miscellaneous improvements, repairs and alterations. The Army Corps will select contractors using the best value trade-off (BVTO) method of procurement or the low-price technically acceptable (LPTA) approach, and qualified contractors must have completed a similar “horizontal construction” project worth at least $100 million to be considered. 
• The Army Corps will use the list of prequalified contractors to solicit bids for stand-alone construction and improvement projects at the border for at least 18 months. As of April 24, only eight vendors had shown interest in the project. Of those eight, six were providers of construction-related goods or services. 

Dive Insight:

Like most construction work secured as part of a federal contract, companies interested in competing for border wall contracts must also be able to provide payment and performance bonds. Under this solicitation, contractors must have the capacity to bond a single project worth $1.5 billion.

The military is pushing ahead with what promises to be massive spending on border wall construction despite legal actions that threaten to invalidate the president’s national emergency declaration, which he made after Congress refused to authorize the amount of money he requested via appropriations. 

In the latest attempt to stop the president from using military funds for border wall construction, the U.S. House of Representatives filed an application for a preliminary injunction in federal court this week. Lawmakers want to prevent the Army Corps from spending $1 billion of Defense Department counternarcotics funds on border construction projects, $976 million of which has already been awarded. 

In the lawsuit, attorneys for the House argue that the Trump administration does not have the authority to spend money outside of the Congressional appropriations process and that the president is trying to do an end run around Congress’ decision to allocate only $1.4 billion for the wall in the last spending bill. The House has requested an oral hearing to argue its case before the recipients of the most recent contracts can begin work.