President Donald Trump aims to release his proposal to upgrade roads, bridges, airports and other public works in early January before his State of the Union address, a senior administration official tells Bloomberg.
Trump had initially promised to introduce a $1 trillion proposal within his first 100 days in office, then the administration said there’d be a plan by the third quarter. That didn’t happen.
Infrastructure advocates question whether a Republican-led Congress will be able to pass an infrastructure spending plan with enough federal funding if it’s already approved a tax measure.
Some say the administration missed its best opportunity to deliver a meaningful public works initiative by not incorporating it into the tax bill, which is nearing approval.
“If they’d taken up infrastructure, we’d have a bill today and have the money to fund it,” says Ray LaHood, a Republican and former U.S. transportation secretary under President Barack Obama. “Nothing happened this year, so the prospects of anything happening next year I think are pretty slim.”
