San Francisco officials propose banning contractors that bid on border wall from city work

Dive Brief:

Two San Francisco supervisors have proposed barring contractors from working on city projects if they bid on President Donald Trump's Mexico border wall, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Aaron Peskin said the city should not provide companies with the monetary benefit of city work if they don't share the same values as San Francisco taxpayers.
If passed, the legislation would not apply to companies with current city contracts, but they would be prohibited from bidding on future work if they tried to enter into border-wall contracts. Subcontractors are not currently included in the bill, but Ronen plans to add them to the legislation.

Dive Insight:

Two large contractors, Tutor Perini and Hensel Phelps, appear on the list of those interested in bidding the wall, according to the Chronicle, and together have almost $2 billion of work underway with the city — a subway project and a terminal at the San Francisco International Airport, respectively. While this legislation wouldn't impact their current projects, it could bar future work. The California cities of Berkeley and Oakland have proposed similar restrictions, as has New York City.

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol recently issued more details about the U.S.–Mexico wall, the first phase of which will involve building prototypes that will eventually be used in construction. Officials have indicated that several companies could receive contracts for different sections of the wall.

Companies have until March 29 to submit a conceptual design. Once the CBP narrows that list down to 40 bidders, the finalists have 30 days to turn in full proposals, including costs and scheduling for prototype construction. The specifications for the wall are still fairly vague, with only a few guidelines, such as an "imposing" height of no less than 18 feet , anti-climbing features, construction that would prevent tunneling down to 6 feet and an "aesthetically pleasing" U.S.-facing side.

Until the winners, with their cost estimates, are selected, no one knows how much the wall will cost, although a previous Department of Homeland Security estimate said the price tag could reach $22 billion over the expected three-year schedule of the project. However, in his 2018 budget proposal, Trump requested only $1.5 billion for border-wall costs in 2017 and $2.6 billion for 2018.

One of the most contentious campaign promises Trump made early on in his quest to become president was his plan to build a border wall, and his pledge that Mexico would pay for it. One of his first acts as president was to sign an executive order directing the DHS to begin planning and construction on the wall as quickly as possible.