White House infrastructure initiative taking shape at a deliberate pace
Trillion-dollar program hasn’t moved far past concept, meeting stages
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's pledge to create a program that funds $1 trillion in new infrastructure programs has kicked off with numerous meetings but few firm decisions, beset by understaffing, bureaucratic challenges and major questions about how to pay for everything.
Trump promised in a February speech to Congress that a $1 trillion infrastructure rebuilding plan would create "millions of new jobs," but few of those jobs are expected to materialize this year because no firm deadlines have been set, and much of its work could spill into 2018.
Despite those challenges, the White House's infrastructure team has become one of the White House's broadest task forces, as Trump considers it to be a central plank of his promise to create more jobs. He has now activated a team of White House and cabinet-agency officials to identify a wide range of infrastructure projects across the United States and come up with a way to fund them, launching the internal deliberations to design the $1 trillion package he promised on the campaign trail.
On Wednesday, Trump hosts an infrastructure- focused luncheon with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, General Atlantic chief executive William Ford, and a number of others. On Tuesday, Trump discussed infrastructure with AFL-CIO Preisdent Richard Trumka.
And on Capitol Hill, some ideas for funding new projects were aired Wednesday at a Senate hearing by highway officials and other interested parties.
Behind the scenes, a government-wide effort kicked off last week, when White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn led a meeting with officials from 15 different federal agencies and departments, pressing them to come up with answers to six different planks for the infrastructure plan.
They were told they need to identify new projects, find existing projects that need help with completion, come up with policy reforms, regulatory reforms, and statutory reforms, and finally come up with a way to pay for it all.
"We're still kind of getting geared up," a senior administration official said.
The quick shift from popular campaign promise to a bogged- down bureaucratic negotiation is the latest case study of how difficult it has been for Trump to pivot from thematic ideas to concrete action. He has run into similar quagmires on tax reform, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, and forcing Mexico to pay for a wall along the U.S. border.
On infrastructure in particular, Trump faces challenges selling members of his own party on his plans once they gel, given GOP resistance to government spending programs.
"This is going to take a lot of work in the administration and on Capitol Hill," said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and former Capitol Hill staffer. "They don't have the personnel right now to get that done."
White House officials are hopeful that the infrastructure planning, even if it moves slowly, will gain ground because of a methodical process they've put in place.
The agencies that attended last week's meeting, which work on issues like transportation, housing, and energy, are expected to continue meeting and planning, but the White House has not set any deadlines. White House officials envision the projects could include projects such as building or rebuilding ports, roads, bridges, airports, expanding access to broadband, and expanding access to housing, among other things.