The director of the Office of Management and Budget estimated Monday that President Trump's proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border could cost $8 million to $25 million per mile.
OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview that he has several plans for the border wall on his desk that the Trump administration is considering.
"I've got, I don't know, six or seven different papers on my desk," Mulvaney said. "I've got one that goes, starts at $8 million per mile. It goes up to about $25 million per mile."
Mulvaney said the cost varies because the Trump administration has not yet decided what type of wall will be constructed and how much of the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico will be covered.
"It just depends on the kind of wall that you want to build, and I don't think we've settled, yet, on the actual construction," the White House budget chief said. "You can do steel, you could do concrete, you can do a combination of concrete and steel. You can supplement it with different types of technologies and so forth. So it sort of depends on what you want to build."
"And of course, when you're talking about a wall that's, you know, several thousand miles long, there's going to be certain places where a certain type of wall is more appropriate than others," he added.
Although the Trump administration has not finalized a plan for the border wall, Mulvaney said that funding for its construction will begin this year.
Before being Trump's OMB director, Mulvaney served in the House of Representatives and had a reputation for being a deficit hawk. Democrats criticized Mulvaney for his push for entitlement reform. Some Republicans have said Mulvaney's hawkishness on the budget went too far. Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) voted against Mulvaney's confirmation because of his prior votes to cut defense spending.