White House Releases Infrastructure Plan

Last month, the White House released a 55-page proposal for President Trump’s long-awaited infrastructure plan. It lays out a framework for crafting legislation structured around four main goals: generating $1.5 trillion to fund an infrastructure package; streamlining the permitting process down to two years; investing in rural infrastructure projects; and advancing workforce training. According to the proposal, the federal government would contribute $200 billion – raised largely through spending cuts – to the infrastructure package. That contribution would include $100 billion for an incentives program that would encourage increased state, local and private investment, $50 billion for capital investments in rural infrastructure projects, $20 billion for the Transformative Projects Program that would support exploratory ideas, $20 billion to expand the use of loans and private activity bonds, and $10 billion for a revolving fund that would finance purchases of federally owned property. It is assumed that states, localities and the private sector would be expected to contribute the remaining $1.5 trillion, though the proposal does not address how these funds will be raised.