President-elect Trump proposes $1T infrastructure plan
Following his electoral victory last Tuesday night, President-elect Donald Trump has delved further into the policy required to enact some of his campaign promises. One such promise was $1 trillion invested in infrastructural improvements.
His proposal is a 10-year program, with funding for highways, tunnels, bridges and airports. The funding comes in large part from tax credits to spur private investment. It does not include any changes to the Highway Trust Fund, or an increase in the federal gas tax.
The plan was mentioned in Trump’s acceptance speech in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,” Trump said. “We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure — which will become, by the way, second to none — and we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.”
Trump’s proposal has garnered much support in the transportation industry, and on both sides of the aisle of Congress in Washington. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster, from Pennsylvania, called the plan “encouraging” and said that “the idea of addressing transportation is gaining some traction in Washington.”
“The highway industry in Pennsylvania is very much looking forward to seeing this proposal enacted,” PHIA Managing Director Jason Wagner said. “We are glad the president-elect acknowledges the improvements that need to be made to our infrastructure, and we are ready to get to work.”
