Vice President-elect Mike Pence promised hundreds of U.S. mayors on Tuesday that the incoming administration will soon put forward an infrastructure package that ensures cities across America have enough funding to meet their needs, despite mounting concerns of a coming battle over such legislation.
“I called [President-elect Trump] this afternoon to tell him I was coming by and in addition to urging me to send along greetings, he said ‘tell them we’re going to do an infrastructure bill and it’s going to be big,'” Pence said in remarks at the 85th Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
“It will have the funding to help communities and states all across America meet the needs that face too many communities and often times stifle growth,” he said of the infrastructure bill.
Pence’s comments come as congressional lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and many Americans, remain wary of the trillion-dollar infrastructure package Trump pushed during his campaign.
A Washington Post-ABC poll released hours before the vice president-elect spoke Tuesday found that 66 percent of Americans oppose the current infrastructure plan that’s been proposed by the incoming administration. The plan would grant around $140 million in tax credits to private investors who agree to finance transportation projects.
“A program of tax cuts isn’t going to get the job done, no matter how large,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters last week.
Pence, however, seemed confident in the next administration’s ability to tackle infrastructure in its first 100 days and draw bipartisan support for the kind of multi-billion dollar spending bill Trump has proposed.
“Our president-elect believes, as I do, that the federal government can play a critical role in helping our cities thrive,” he said, adding that “in the days, and months, and years that lie ahead, we’re going to work with each and every one of you regardless of political party to make America great again.”
