Washington (CNN) Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has directed that several military construction projects in the US that had been put on hold to divert money to President Donald Trump's border wall be restarted, with funds for the wall instead being redirected from overseas building projects.

The projects that are losing funding were authorized in the most recent Congressional National Defense Authorization Act and include projects that are part of the European Deterrence Initiative, which is aimed at countering Russia, according to a copy of the memo obtained by CNN.

The move marks a significant increase in the Pentagon's domestic spending in an election year. The change "could be innocent, or it could be political" a congressional aide told CNN.

Projects are being restarted in states represented by both Republicans and Democrats.

"I direct you to release funding associated with 22 currently deferred projects within the United States totaling $545.526 million," Esper wrote in a memo dated Monday to the Pentagon's top budget official.

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