ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Trump is announcing a huge $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan — here's what's in it

President Donald Trump's infrastructure plan includes $200 billion in federal funding and attempts to cut down on regulatory reviews of proposals.

  • The White House on Monday released President Donald Trump's long-awaited infrastructure plan.
  • The plan includes $200 billion in federal funding with an eye toward incentivizing another $1.3 trillion in local investment.
  • Many analysts and lawmakers do not expect Congress to pass the large package.

The White House on Monday unveiled President Donald Trump's long-awaited infrastructure plan that aims to rehabilitate the nation's roads, bridges, tunnels, and more.

The plan includes $200 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years and aims to raise up to $1.5 trillion in total by incentivizing investment from state and local governments, as well as private firms.

Here's a breakdown of how that would be spent:

ADVERTISEMENT

The proposal is a departure from typical spending on infrastructure, as the federal government usually covers a bulk of the cost. Trump's plan would see local governments taking on 80% or more of the funding burden.

Another focus is streamlining the approval process for bigger projects to two years from the current five to 10, removing some regulatory red tape. The plan would allow one agency to make the final decision on permitting, something the White House is calling a "one agency, one decision" approach.

Democrats have said that shortening the approval time could be used to skirt environmental regulations.

Several other items in the package would affect things like educational grants and toll roads. Here's a brief rundown:

ADVERTISEMENT

Trump had suggested for nearly a year that an infrastructure plan was imminent. On May 1, for example, Trump said it was coming in two to three weeks.

While the plan is set to dominate the policy agenda in Washington this week, almost no one expects Congress to pass anything resembling it this year. Isaac Boltansky, a policy analyst at the research firm Compass Point, summed up in a note to clients the reasons he thinks it's dead on arrival:

"Despite bipartisan conceptual support for infrastructure projects, we doubt that a sweeping infrastructure bill will become law in this Congress for 3 key reasons: (1) the deep policy divide over the funding mechanism; (2) unclear pay-fors as repatriation was included in tax reform and raising the gas tax remains unpopular among Republicans; and (3) the timeline is difficult given the already overburdened legislative calendar and the gravitational pull of the midterms."

Chris Krueger, a strategist at Cowen Washington Research Group, was also skeptical. He said in a note on Monday: "$1.5 trillion for infrastructure on the heels of $2 trillion in deficit-financed fiscal stimulus in the past two months is ... unlikely."

ADVERTISEMENT

Democrats have already come out against the plan, saying the private-public partnerships are a "scam" designed to enrich private contractors.

"This is not a real infrastructure plan — it's simply another scam, an attempt by this administration to privatize critical government functions, and create windfalls for their buddies on Wall Street," Rep. Peter DeFazio, the top Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, said Sunday.

Meanwhile, Republicans have expressed concerns about the effects of the new tax law and recent budget deal on the federal deficit, meaning another $200 billion spending proposal is unlikely to get much support.

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT