WASHINGTON – Nearly a full four weeks into President Donald Trump’s “national emergency” over his claims of an “invasion” at the southern border, his Department of Homeland Security has yet to submit a list of projects for which it needs Defense Department money.

That list would be the basis for siphoning off billions of dollars in Pentagon funding to pay for a wall along the Mexican border – a wall Trump promised many hundreds of times that he would force Mexico to pay for, but which he never asked Mexican leaders about even once.

The lackadaisical pace following Trump’s Feb. 15 declaration is proof that this is not an actual emergency, never mind the number of years it will take to build a wall once the funding source is identified, said Elizabeth Goitein, an expert on national emergency declarations at the Brennen Center for Justice.

“There’s no such thing as a 10-year solution to an emergency,” she said.

Neither DHS nor the White House responded to HuffPost queries about why that agency had not yet put together a plan for use of DOD money if the situation at the border is as big a “crisis” as the president continues to claim.

A Pentagon official told HuffPost on condition of anonymity last week: “Once DHS provides a list of the projects they request assistance on, the secretary will determine if DOD can support. If DOD supports, then we’ll be able to start construction.”

As of Monday, the official said, DHS had still not provided that list.

Trump’s proposed 2020 budget asks Congress for another $8.6 billion, which would be enough to “finish” the wall, according to his acting budget chief Russell Vought. That amount is $7 billion more than the administration asked for the border barrier in any of Trump’s previous budget requests.