How will Trump’s imaginary wall across the border actually get built? Loud promises and threats are not easily translated into reality, especially when federal procurement rules and procedures must be followed. When I read this week that the administration is soliciting bids for the “huge, beautiful” border wall, I wondered what the solicitation looked like.
What specifications are outlined? What is the location? Are the entitlements (site control, environmental clearance, engineering reports, etc.) in place, or does the contractor have to get those? Are they requiring prevailing wages for the construction crews? American-made materials? No use of products made by slaves? Pre-approved overhead rates?
I make my living preparing contract proposals to government agencies. The federal government has excellent transparency, notification, pre-bid communication, and submissions procedures, so I knew what to look for, and where to look. I expected to find a 60 or 70 page document outlining the “build the wall” project, with at least some details about qualifications of bidders, scope of the project, contracting procedures, checklist for submission contents, questions that should be answered in the proposal, references required, and a description of the scoring.
What I found was one paragraph stating that the Department of Homeland Security will be soliciting bids for a PROTOTYPE of a 30 foot hall concrete wall, that the RFP (Request for Proposals) will be issued after March 15, with a quick turnaround time for concept papers. The paragraph ends with this: “The intent of this procurement is to acquire and evaluate available wall prototypes and provide some initial construction of some wall segments, but is not intended as the vehicle for the procurement of the total wall solution for the border with Mexico.”
You can read it yourself here: www.fbo.gov/…
The RFP will have to go through a couple of months of review before it is released. In the meantime, it appears that concept papers will be solicited. That is a more casual process, as there is no stated intention of actually issuing a contract.
Note especially that they are only looking for a prototype, and they don’t even say where it might be sited, so the prospective contractors don’t know anything about the terrain, accessibility, land ownership, or adjacent properties that might need to give easements. Presumably, the next notice might state the length of the prototype they are seeking.
Spending federal money is not as easy as making deals in a family business. The idea that Mexico would pay for the wall was always pure fantasy. To actually get an RFP in place, there would need to be, at minimum, some fund in the budget from which to take the money. For most programs, there is legislation that describes what services the government will solicit; you can go back to the Congressional Record to see what was actually stated in law.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that it will take at least three years before the first brick is laid, and that assumes that a construction company, along with engineers, architects, soils specialists, and other subcontractors, is financially able absorb all the soft costs, and start digging the foundation, before they receive any payment.
In the meantime, the border wall is one more of the administration’s rhetorical fantasies.