US North Dakota company that Trump touted gets $400 million border wall contract

A company that President Trump urged military officials to hire for border wall construction has been awarded a $400 million contract to build a span of new barrier across an Arizona wildlife refuge, according to a Department of Defense announcement Monday.

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North Dakota-based Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. won the contract to build in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Yuma County, Ariz., the Defense Department said, with a target completion date of Dec. 30, 2020.

Trump has repeatedly pushed for Fisher to get a wall-building contract, urging officials with the Army Corps of Engineers to pick the firm — only to be told Fisher’s bids did not meet standards. Trump’s entreaties on behalf of the company have concerned some officials who are unaccustomed to the president getting personally involved in the intricacies of government contracting.

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Trump has latched on to the company ’s public claims that a new weathered steel design and innovative construction method would vastly speed up the project — and deliver it at far White House officials said Trump wants to go with the best and most cost-effective option to build the wall quickly.

President Donald Trump has "aggressively" pushed for the Army Corps of Engineers to award a contract to a North Dakota -based construction company to build sections of his proposed wall along the southern US border , The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Trump has been enamored with Tommy Fisher, the company’s CEO who has made multiple appearances on Fox News to promote his firm and insist it would do a better job than those the government had already chosen. The company’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a Fisher booster who has taken the case to the Oval Office, has argued that the company could build the wall faster than any of the current Army Corps contractors. Trump has grown upset in recent months that so few miles have been built given his campaign promises to construct hundreds of miles of wall to keep immigrants from crossing into the United States via the southern border. 

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President Trump's proposed border wall is looming as a central obstacle to passing spending bills by a December deadline. © The Hill Trump's border wall hangs over spending talks The top appropriators in the House and Senate have already struck an agreement ahead of Thanksgiving on how to divide $1.37 trillion in annual spending among 12 bills. But lawmakers still need to agree on how to deal with the border wall -- a top issue for Trump that precipitated a government shutdown last year. With just 15 legislative days between the Thanksgiving recess and a deadline of Dec.

Trump has latched on to the company ’s public claims that a new weathered steel design and innovative construction method would vastly speed up the project — and deliver it at far White House officials said Trump wants to go with the best and most cost-effective option to build the wall quickly.

US President Trump wants to build that wall — and it should be cheap and fast. And it appears like he’s already found the perfect men for the job: a North Dakota construction However, Trump seems to be willing to change the rules and offer the contract to Fisher directly, believing the company can

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In a statement, Cramer said the company plans to build 31 miles of new barrier.

“I am glad to see more progress being made to secure the southern border, and I am grateful to see a good North Dakota company like Fisher Industries getting some of the work,” Cramer said. “I know they will do very well, performing high quality work at a good bargain, all for the security of the people of the United States.”

Fisher has worked with a number of Trump allies — including former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach and ex-White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon — to build new border fence on private land using private donations. After the activist group We Build the Wall hired Fisher to construct a span of new barrier outside El Paso, the company purchased riverfront property in South Texas where it said it plans to erect a 3.5-mile span of fencing on the banks of the Rio Grande.

2 business executives and their father identified as victims in South Dakota plane crash

Jim and Kirk Hansen and their father were killed in the crash, according to the company their family.The founders of health and wellness company Kyäni Inc., along with their father, were among the nine killed in a plane crash in Chamberlain, South Dakota, the company said Sunday.

President Donald Trump appears to have set his sights on a North Dakota construction firm with a Crowdfunded private border wall breaks ground 02:07. Company touted by Trump to build the After failing to get his requests for wall funding passed by a Republican-held Congress during his first

Since then, with Trump promising to build 400 miles of fencing by next year, the Pentagon has pledged to Fisher was one of the six companies that built border wall prototypes outside San Diego in 2017, but the Fisher has alleged improprieties with the border wall procurement process and sued the Fisher this week told radio listeners in North Dakota that he was using private donations to build a

The company’s construction plan has not been approved by the International Boundary Water Commission, which regulates construction in the Rio Grande flood plain, but Fisher and We Build the Wall have won praise from senior U.S. Border Patrol officials.

Trump has pledged to complete 450 to 500 miles of new border barriers by the end of next year. So far his administration has build about 85 miles of new fencing, almost all of it in areas where tall steel bollards are replacing smaller, older structures that existed before he took office.

© Jordyn Rozensky and Justin Hamel/Jordyn Rozensky and Justin Hamel for The Washington Post Fisher Industries works on the grounds of American Eagle Brick Company, along the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to El Paso

nick.miroff@washpost.com

josh.dawsey@washpost.com

Aaron Gregg contributed to this report.