President Donald Trump planned to promote his infrastructure package last week. However those plans were overshadowed by FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee and other distractions dominating Washington. Now local officials across the country face uncertainty about whether they will get federal funding for infrastructure projects. Without that funding, many of those projects will stall, reports the Washington Post.
President Trump called for some $1 trillion in new infrastructure programs; however he now faces an uphill battle to get a package through Congress. It also remains unclear what kind of funding for wireless infrastructure would be included, something the industry has high hopes for, Inside Towers reported. The administration wants to veer away from funding existing projects, saying it’s wasteful and instead move toward public-private funding partnerships.
The President has suggested the entire $1 trillion might come from the federal government, but aides now say $200 billion would come from the federal government and $800 billion from private investors, states and cities, reports the Post. “Unless you have a pretty serious broad-based debate about funding, you’re never going to get to the numbers the president has talked about,” said Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman who was transportation secretary under President Barack Obama.
Dan Slane is an Ohio developer who worked on the infrastructure plan during Trump’s transition. He tells the Post he still receives calls from state and local governments asking for plan details. The administration “wants all of the infrastructure to be privately financed or privately owned,” he said.
White House officials say they’re taking their time because they want to create more accountability for how the money is spent.
June 13, 2017
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