Trump, Democratic Leaders Agree in Principle on Infrastructure Spending

Yesterday, President Trump hosted the Congressional Democratic leadership – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – at the White House for a discussion about infrastructure. (Click here to read the letter from Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Schumer.) Among the priorities the Democratic leadership expressed were real revenue and resiliency. In the meeting, President Trump and Congressional Democratic leadership agreed in principle to a $2 trillion infrastructure bill, double what the president campaigned on and a half billion more than his $1.5 trillion proposal int he 2018 State of the Union address.

On Wedneday, May 1, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is holding a hearing for Members of Congress to present their priorities for the infrastructure bill. The committee is also accepting input from stakeholders. NRMCA will be submitting input reflecting the industry’s legislative priorities.

It is widely expected that the committee will formulate an infrastructure package, then consider and likely pass the bill to the House floor. Whether it is heard and what kind of reception it receives in the Senate remains to be seen. However, in light of this agreement the prospects for this legislation may have improved. Regardless, this process provides a forum for legislative priorities to be later included in surface reauthorization legislation in 2020.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.