OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said that parts of the border wall count be transparent to reduce violent attacks. | AP Photo Mulvaney: Parts of border wall could be 'see-through'

The director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, declined on Monday to put a firm estimate on how much President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall would cost to construct and suggested that parts of the barrier could be “see-through.”

Talking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt about the project, Mulvaney said the cost of the wall will depend heavily on how it’s constructed, something he indicated has not yet been decided.


“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,” Mulvaney 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.”

And noting that “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 are more appropriate than others,” Mulvaney suggested that parts could be “see-through.”

“Some places, a solid concrete barrier might be desired,” Mulvaney said. “In other places, the border folks are actually telling us, border control's actually telling us that they like the one you can see through, because it reduces the number of violent attacks on our folks. So it's a complicated program.”

Trump, whose hard-line stance on immigration and combative rhetoric toward Mexico were signature parts of his campaign for president, has said he intends to follow through on his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, which according to some estimates could cost $14 billion. Trump has continued to insist that Mexico will pay for the wall, while Mexican officials have made clear that they have no intention of doing so.

Mulvaney and Hewitt, however, did not discuss the question of Mexico footing the bill. Mulvaney, noting that he’s seen estimates for construction costs that vary from $8 million per mile to $25 million per mile, said the administration is “going to try and start to fund this during the 2017 fiscal year.”

“The fiscal year 2017 ends at the end of September,” Mulvaney said. “The President wants to have the wall, wants to have new construction done on the wall before the end of the fiscal year, and we will find a way for him to do that.”

Hewitt also asked Mulvaney about federal funding for programs like NPR and the National Endowments of the Arts and Humanities. While the budget director didn’t say that those programs are on the chopping block, he implied that they may not be high on the administration’s priority list.

“Well, the question is this,” Mulvaney said. “What's more important? What's more important – defending the border, defending the country, or doing those things? You could also ask it another way. Is the, is NPR so important that we should be borrowing money from our grandkids to fund it next year? I think you know where you and I probably stand on that.”