Senate Democrats Tuesday unveiled a massive infrastructure spending project with a pricetag of more than $1 trillion that they say they have already discussed with President Donald Trump.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday he spoke with Trump about the Democratic proposal during a private White House meeting between Trump and top lawmakers on Monday.
Schumer said, the president “seems open to a bill that’s this large.” Trump campaigned on a $1 trillion infrastructure plan but has not unveiled legislation.
House Republicans said they’ll include infrastructure projects in their fiscal 2018 budget but have not agreed on the details.
Democrats are the first out of the gate with a specific proposal. And unlike Republicans, they aren’t interested in paying for it with cuts elsewhere to the budget or revenue from tax reform.
The plan authored by Democrats would spend the most money — $210 billion — to repair the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges. It calls for spending another $110 billion on water and sewer improvements in local communities, $180 billion to replace and expand rail and bus systems, and $200 billion on unspecified “vital infrastructure projects” around the country.
Another $75 billion each would fund school buildings and airport projects, and $20 billion would be used to expand broadband.
Democrats want to spend $100 billion on energy infrastructure projects, including reforming existing clean energy tax credits and providing a “permanent incentive” for “electricity generation, transportation fuels, and energy efficiency improvements.”
Schumer said the proposal would create 15 million jobs and suggested the cost should be added to the deficit. Schumer pointed out that Republicans support tax cuts that are not paid for.
“This is a job-creating bill,” Schumer said. “As for how we pay for it, we will discuss with President Trump. But many of us believe it should be used to just create jobs, not take away money out of the economy.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., backs the plan and suggested it could be a rare area of cooperation between the parties. “I hope this is an area where all of us can get together because it is certainly something the American people want,” he said.
Some Republicans and Democrats support paying for infrastructure projects by reforming the tax code in a way that produces new tax revenue.
Schumer warned that a plan to use repatriated tax money that would come under corporate tax reform is “not going to be even close to what we need to pay for it.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said lawmakers are aiming for an “expansive” infrastructure spending plan in the fiscal 2018 budget planned for the spring.
