Senate Democrats Seek $500 Billion For Infrastructure

Senate Democrats, emboldened by the GOP’s failure to unilaterally pass a health-care bill, are launching an effort to win bipartisan support for the investment of $500 billion in taxpayer dollars in infrastructure improvements.

With health-care changes at a standstill and tax reform – another objective on which Republicans campaigned last year – a complex project that is expected to take months, Democrats hope infrastructure spending will emerge as a desirable legislative win for Congress and the White House.

The Democratic push came in a week when President Donald Trump appeared to acknowledge that his campaign promise to raise $1 trillion for infrastructure largely through private-sector investment was not feasible.

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sent a letter Thursday asking to meet with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, reminding her of her confirmation-hearing promise to work in bipartisan fashion in delivering on Trump’s campaign promise.

That appeal is buttressed by an internal committee document in which the Democrats outline their infrastructure priorities for Chairman Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Barrasso expressed worries at committee hearing in February that rural states like his wouldn’t attract much of the private investment Trump promised.

The committee’s Democrats spelled out a proposal to spend $500 billion more in tax dollars on infrastructure over 10 years, all in areas within its purview. (The committee’s domain is highways, the Banking Committee handles transit systems, and the Commerce Committee is responsible for buses and railways.)

With no more than a nine-page tax proposal on the table thus far, and divisions within the GOP that need resolution before a tax bill can pass, Democrats and many Republicans see an infrastructure funding package as something on which Congress can more readily agree.

(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Ashley Halsey Iii

{Matzav.com}