Trump Unveils $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan
The initiative involves $200 billion in federal funding and envisions big investments by local governments and private companies
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled his long-awaited $1.5 trillion plan to tackle the nation's crumbling infrastructure, meeting with state and local officials to discuss the initiative. Trump said the plan aims to turn $200 billion in federal funds and another $1.3 trillion or more in state and corporate investments into a 10-year plan to fix America's roads, bridges, railways and other infrastructure. Trump contended at the White House meeting with officials from across the country that the U.S. military spending in the Middle East had left the region "worse than it was 17 years ago when we went in." But he said "the returns of investments [from the new infrastructure spending] to the states will be incredible." "We will build. We will maintain," Trump said. "Our roads are in bad shape. We will modernize." He vowed that the permitting process for construction work would be cut "from 10 years to two years or maybe one year. Washington will be your partner." The $200 billion in federal funds over the next decade would come from cuts to existing programs, a sum Trump has conceded is "not a large amount." Of that, half would be spent on an incentive program to match funds from state and local governments. About $50 billion would go toward rural projects in the form of block grants to states. Another $20 billion will go to "transformative programs" meant for new and innovative projects, with $20 billion for expansion of loan programs and private activity bonds and the final $10 billion for a "capital financing fund." Whether Congress approves Trump's plan is uncertain. Some Republican lawmakers are already voicing opposition to the overall cost of the plan, on top of recently adopted tax cuts and increased spending over the next two years that are already adding to the country's $20.6 trillion in long-term debt. Meanwhile, some Democrats have objected to the relatively little federal contribution to the plan as compared to the amount that Trump is calling for from state governments and corporations. Shelley Poticha, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "President Trump's infrastructure proposal is a disaster. It fails to offer the investment needed to bring our country into the 21st century. Even worse, his plan includes an unacceptable corporate giveaway by truncating environmental reviews.'' But Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, praised Trump "for providing the leadership we have desperately needed to reclaim our rightful place as global leader on true 21st-century infrastructure.''