# Barnard Construction **Barnard Construction** is a heavy-civil contractor in Bozeman, Montana. [[Tim Barnard]] founded it in 1975, after arriving in Montana, by the company's account, with "$1,000, two shovels, a pick," and he remains chairman. With its affiliates, including **BFBC** and the Barnard Spencer joint venture, it has become one of the two dominant border-wall builders of the second Trump administration. The other is Fisher Sand & Gravel. ## The second-term awards The firm and its affiliates have won **more than $5.6 billion** in federal border-construction contracts since January 2025, reported by both High Country News and Newsweek. HCN puts the all-time total above $7 billion. The largest pieces: - **The $1.6 billion no-bid order (April 2026).** It covers 112.5 miles of "secondary wall" in New Mexico, issued by [[CBP]] with **urgency** listed as the reason for skipping competition. GAO dismissed a protest by SLS Federal Services as untimely, and found that issuing the order only to Barnard was consistent with the 2025 multiple-award contract's terms. See [[Spending Gap - Urgency vs. the $1.6B No-Bid Border Wall to a Million-Dollar Donor]]. - **The Big Bend region (Mar 5, 2026).** Two West Texas task orders worth **nearly $2 billion**, for just over 100 miles of 30-foot steel bollard wall: about $1.1 billion in Hudspeth County and about $960 million in Presidio County. With a roughly $600 million Del Rio award made the same day, Barnard's March 5 awards came to about **$2.56 billion**. The Big Bend sector logs some of the fewest crossings on the southern border. > [!warning] Don't merge these contracts > - **Fisher Sand & Gravel, not Barnard,** holds the ~$1.6–1.8 billion **Bootheel** contract of December 2025 (49 miles of wall plus 60 miles of secondary barrier). That is the award Rep. [[Gabe Vasquez]] called "the absolute definition of waste." > - **Southwest Valley Constructors** holds the ~$1.7 billion "Big Bend Project 4" order inside **Big Bend National Park** (May 2026). > > See [[Big Bend National Park Border Wall]]. ## The donation and the precedent - **The donation.** FEC records show Tim Barnard and his wife gave **$1 million** in 2024 to a fundraising committee for Trump's campaign. That is documented alongside the awards. No exchange is alleged, and the vault does not assert one. - **The first term.** In April 2020 the Army Corps of Engineers gave BFBC a **$569 million** no-bid award for 17 miles at two California sites. The Army's reasoning was that BFBC was already "mobilized… in close proximity." Sen. [[Jack Reed]] objected, and the [[Government Accountability Office]] added the award to its border-construction review. GAO's report (GAO-21-372, June 2021) found **$4.3 billion** in noncompetitive Corps border contracts in FY2018–2020. The Corps agreed to reassess its approach. ## 2026 friction - **The $37 billion vehicle.** In May 2026 Posillico Civil sued in the Court of Federal Claims, alleging that about 73% of task-order value on the $37 billion border contract had gone to Fisher and Barnard. Barnard intervened, and Posillico dropped the suit on July 31. - **Texas land.** On July 31, 2026, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent CBP and Barnard a **cease-and-desist** over clearing on state-managed land. Reports place the clearing in Presidio County (Texas Tribune) or Hudspeth County (KVIA). ## Why it matters Barnard is the vault's clearest case of the second-term contracting pattern. It is a real, long-established contractor. It made a documented seven-figure donation. And it holds the largest awards, made through a pre-qualified pool, with "urgency" as the reason one firm got the work without competition. That is the [[Sole Source]] question [[Project On Government Oversight]] keeps asking. ## Related [[The Spending Gap]] · [[Tim Barnard]] · [[CBP]] · [[Gabe Vasquez]] · [[Project On Government Oversight]] · [[Big Bend National Park Border Wall]] · [[Sole Source]] · [[Bid Protest]]