Trump to unveil $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan

AFP, WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s administration will sketch out more details of its plan to invest in America’s creaking infrastructure Monday, hoping it can leverage up to $1.5 trillion for the cause.

Senior White House officials said the president’s budget, schedueled to be released yesterday, will include $200 billion earmarked for projects to fix roads, bridges and other crucial infrastructure.

Under the proposals, states and private investors would put up the remaining $1.3 trillion.

Trump, playing up his background in construction, had made fixing US infrastructure a core campaign pledge and already announced the $1.5 trillion plan in his State of the Union address last month.

On Monday, the administration will put more flesh on the bones, including ideas for cutting the length of the permitting process to two years.

“Infrastructure is obviously a critical component to the functioning of our economy, a lot of American success is a result of the quality of the infrastructure we have had historically,” said a senior White House official.

“But the current system is fundamentally broken.”

“We are under-investing in our infrastructure and we have a permitting process that takes so long that even when funds are adequate it can take a decade to build critical infrastructure.”

 

Trump to unveil $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan

AFP, WASHINGTON: Donald Trumps administration will sketch out more details of its plan to invest in Americas creaking infrastructure Monday, hoping it can leverage up to $1.5 trillion for the cause. Senior White House officials said the presidents budget, schedueled to be released yesterday, will include $200 billion earmarked for projects to fix roads, bridges and other crucial infrastructure. Under the proposals, states and private investors would put up the remaining $1.3 trillion. Trump, playing up his background in construction, had made fixing US infrastructure a core campaign pledge and already announced the $1.5 trillion plan in his State of the Union address last month. On Monday, the administration will put more flesh on the bones, including ideas for cutting the length of the permitting process to two years. Infrastructure is obviously a critical component to the functioning of our economy, a lot of American success is a result of the quality of the infrastructure we have had historically, said a senior White House official. But the current system is fundamentally broken. We are under-investing in our infrastructure and we have a permitting process that takes so long that even when funds are adequate it can take a decade to build critical infrastructure.