Infrastructure plan due next month
WASHINGTON» The Trump administration will release its long-anticipated public works plan soon, trying to fulfill a campaign pledge but set to fall short of some ambitious goals.
As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to generate at least $1 trillion in infrastructure spending. As president, he is relying on state and local governments to pony up a significant share of the total.
Trump told mayors at the White House this week that he would present his proposal after Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
“We’re also working to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure by stimulating a $1 trillion investment, and that’ll actually probably end up being about $1.7 trillion,” Trump said.
Officials said Washington’s commitment will be far smaller — and the benefits contingent in large part on state and local support.
The administration’s plan calls for $200 billion in federal spending over 10 years, according to a six-page summary reviewed by The Associated Press.
The summary, widely and unofficially disseminated in the capital, is a snapshot of the administration’s thinking. While details may change, the broad outlines are expected to remain the same, according to officials familiar with the document. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the internal document publicly.
Half the money would go to grants for transportation, water, flood control, cleanup at some of the country’s most polluted sites and other projects.
States, local governments and other project sponsors could use the grants for no more than 20 percent of the cost. That’s consistent with comments from administration officials that they want to use federal dollars as incentives and that most of the rest of the money would come from other sources.
The summary also includes $14 billion over 10 years for current programs that use taxpayer money to attract private investment or lower financing costs.
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump and his team “are ready to work with Congress to move legislation forward quickly. America shouldn’t have to wait any longer for better infrastructure.”
One uncertainty is whether project sponsors could combine grant money with other federal sources such as highway and transit aid programs.
Transit agencies generally count on the federal government for half the cost of major construction projects, and federal dollars can make up as much as 80 percent of some highway projects.
One-quarter of the expected total, $50 billion, would go toward rural projects — transportation, broadband, water, waste, power, flood management and ports.