Posted on 10/05/2017 1:41:49 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
President Trumps legislative affairs team met with a small group of House lawmakers at the White House on Thursday morning to discuss the administrations plan for rebuilding U.S. infrastructure.
Two Democrats and three Republicans attended the meeting, including two members who sit on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The panel is expected to be a key player in Trumps $1 trillion rebuilding proposal, which has yet to be released.
The administration is also hosting an infrastructure briefing Thursday evening with state transportation officials, industry groups, union representative and other stakeholders. The event will be lead by Transportation Deputy Secretary Jeffrey Rosen and policy adviser D.J. Gribbin, according to a White House spokeswoman.
Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), one of the lawmakers invited to attend the White Houses Thursday morning meeting, said she presented the administration with bipartisan ideas aimed at improving rural infrastructure.
"I urged the White House to put partisan politics aside and come forward with a responsible and robust infrastructure plan that will create a better future for rural Americans, Bustos said. I was pleased to have this opportunity and hope that it is the start of a productive conversation about how to make real, positive change in the lives of working families."
The flurry of infrastructure meetings comes as lawmakers and stakeholders have been pressing the administration for more details about Trumps long-awaited infrastructure package.
The White House outlined a brief sketch of Trumps infrastructure vision in his budget request earlier this year, vowing to release more details in the third quarter or early fall. The administration has yet to release any further guidance on the plan, though some lawmakers are hoping it will come soon.
Weve seen their outline, but thats continuing to be adjusted, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told reporters Tuesday. We hope theyre going to make it public in the next week or so. It will be more of an outline of principles, so we can move forward and put meat on the bones.
But Trump has recently questioned the role of public-private partnerships in his plan, raising new concerns about how the proposal will be paid for and whether Republicans will be on board with the rebuilding effort.
I dont think its possible to do a bill that doesnt have a mixture. Its an all-of-the-above solution
[public-private partnerships] are a piece of a puzzle. States are contributing, theyre partnering, Shuster said. All of us working together is I think how we get to the $1 trillion number.
My fear is GOPe knows they must deliver a perceived legislative success at this point and they will choose a pork fest infrastructure bill to do it and the Rats will fall all over themselves to support it.
It would have been smarter to have started the infrastructure spending negotiations at the beginning of the administration and then kept stringing it out while pushing for Obamacare repeal, tax reform, funding for the Wall and other things.
That way you can reward or punish people like Susan Collins for going along with the other things you want by giving her or denying her infrastructure spending in her district.
Yes it’s sleazy but it’s the way things actually got done in Washington back in the years before the federal government was funded by just periodically renewing a massive omnibus continuing resolution spending bill.
You nailed it—pork is desert in DC.
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