President Trump’s legislative infrastructure package could be unveiled in May, months earlier than the administration had originally planned and possibly colliding with other legislative efforts.
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said in a forum Tuesday morning the administration is working on forming its legislative proposal now. While it was thought infrastructure could be tackled in the late summer or early fall, she said the timetable has been moved up.
“We’re working on a legislative package that will probably be in May or late May, or something like that,” Chao said. “We’re very much aware of the need for legislation.”
The Trump legislative agenda originally called for healthcare reform to be finished by late spring and then tax reform to be the next item up before the summer recess.
However, the defeat of the American Health Care Act may have sped up negotiations on infrastructure due to its bipartisan popularity. Reports surfaced last week that infrastructure and tax reform could be rolled into a single proposal.
It’s not clear if that’s still the case, and the agenda could be hijacked again as Republican leaders in Congress and the Trump administration have started revisiting healthcare reform in recent days, according to multiple reports.
Infrastructure is widely seen as the most promising place for Democrats and Republicans to work together on a piece of legislation.
Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Counsel, said the administration is looking at all facets of infrastructure. He said the guiding philosophy is that if something affects the lives of Americans in a significant way, then it can be considered infrastructure.
“We have taken the broadest interpretation of infrastructure,” he said.
He said the privatization of air traffic control and converting the country from a land-based radar air traffic control system to a GPS-based air traffic control system is the most exciting part of the administration’s proposal.
The United States has lost control of airspace over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans because Canada has a GPS-based air traffic control system, which pilots prefer. Moving to that system would bring the United States in line with the rest of the world and help simplify air travel.
Cohn used a flight from Boston to New York as an example. He said right now planes have to fly farther west than they do south and move between different elevations because of the need to fit with the air traffic control system. A GPS-based system would allow for a straighter flight path and a simpler elevation level that would save money on jet fuel and shorten flight times.
“Everyone else in the system is going to be happy with this,” he said. “Every other country has basically done it so we need to catch up.”
He added the power grid can be updated with new technology that would capture 100 percent of the electrons moving through the wires. Right now, the grid loses about 20 percent of the electrons moving through the system because of antiquated technology.
Cohn said the administration would try to entice private investment in order to rebuild the grid. He added that private entrepreneurship would also help speed up rail travel in the United States.
Many rail routes can’t be high speed because they have too many turns, he said. That can be fixed by one of two ways: using eminent domain to take over plots of land to straighten out rail routes; or digging tunnels.
Cohn said innovator Elon Musk believes tunneling is possible and he’s willing to work with the government to do so.
“Elon Musk says OK, I can solve the problem, I can tunnel the whole way,” he said, stating he believes train trip times between Washington and New York could be cut to less than an hour with tunnels.
“We don’t have a lack of ingenuity, we have a lack of desire to really figure out what to do,” Cohn added.
