President Donald Trump in the next few weeks plans to unveil his $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which calls for $200 billion in taxpayer money to spur the plan’s remaining private investment, according to the Administration’s transportation secretary.
“These funds will be used to leverage $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday, according to the Associated Press. She added that the federal investment in rebuilding the country’s roads and bridges, along with other projects related to water and pipelines, will be counteracted by unstated savings “in order to avoid saddling future generations with more debt,” the AP reports.
Trump has pledged to invest $1 trillion in infrastructure throughout his campaign and presidency, most notably during a joint session to Congress in February when he said that “crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, and railways gleaming across our beautiful land.” But his administration has remained mum on specific details on how exactly it will be structured.
The initiative appears to counter Trump’s overall fiscal agenda. The President in March proposed slashing $2.4 billion — or 13% — of funding for the Department of Transportation, despite infrastructure being one of the few policy areas that Republicans and Democrats agree requires more investment. The annual report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the America’s infrastructure a “D+,” writing that the country’s “deteriorating infrastructure is impeding our ability to compete in the thriving global economy.”
It remains to be seen how Trump’s plan will utilize private investments for the majority of his $1 trillion plan. While infrastructure is generally viewed a a bipartisan investment, Republicans and Democrats appear to disagree on how exactly the President’s plan should be financed.