WASHINGTON — President 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 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.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.