The fights on Capitol Hill over healthcare and other issues are overshadowing President Trump’s proposed $1 trillion package to fix roads, bridges and waterworks — and include broadband infrastructure, reports the New York Times, quoting administration officials, lawmakers and labor leaders. Infrastructure is in line behind tough negotiations over the budget, the debt ceiling, a tax overhaul and a new push to toughen immigration laws.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters this month, consideration of a proposal could slip into next year. “They’re supposedly going to submit some sort of plan in the fall, so we’ll see.”
A.F.L.-C.I.O. President Richard Trumka is pushing for more federal funding and said it doesn’t appear the administration and the Republican party are on the same page on this issue. A White House spokeswoman told the Times, the timetable for releasing a proposal remains the same — late summer or early fall.
Trump favors using public-private partnerships to fix the nation’s infrastructure, so the federal government would not be providing all the money nor assuming all the risk. The administration will try to use $200 billion in federal spending to attract an additional $800 billion in investment from private investors and local governments over the next 10 years, Inside Towers reported.
Everyone agrees something needs to be done; the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $4.6 trillion is needed to fix crumbling highways, bridges, transit systems and waterworks, and “funding for ‘transformative projects,’ like broadband and power grid improvements.”
July 25, 2017
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