Democrats to unveil $1 trillion plan to rebuild infrastructure

WASHINGTON • United States House Democrats are set to unveil a five-year, US$760 billion (S$1 trillion) framework for rebuilding the nation's highways, airports and other infrastructure, laying out an election-year package with little chance of enactment after bipartisan talks with the White House on the issue failed to gain traction.

The outline, billed as the Moving Forward Framework, provides a foundation for legislation that is currently being drafted or debated in House committees, according to a senior Democratic aide who was familiar with the plans but was unauthorised to discuss them before a public announcement yesterday.

The framework is the product of a collaboration led by three representatives: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Peter DeFazio of Oregon; Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey; and House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts.

"This is not just about fixing our roads and bridges," the three said in a joint statement.

"It is about seizing the opportunity to make transformational changes in communities of all sizes, in every corner of our country."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland were to formally announce the plan yesterday, after a closed-door presentation to the House Democratic caucus.

Democrats will also renew calls for bipartisan talks with the White House to forge an agreement on infrastructure, the aide said, including a mechanism to pay for it.

After they struck an initial deal with President Donald Trump last spring to pursue a US$2 trillion package, talks faltered over how to finance the initiative, and the President stormed out of a meeting on the topic, declaring that he could not work with Democrats until they stopped investigating him.

"We thought we would be able to move in a positive way on this," Ms Pelosi said at a news conference this month.

"So far, they have not come on board. However, we've decided now, we'll just have to go forward."

The renewed push for agreement on an infrastructure plan comes as Democrats, who are eager to shift the focus from the divisive impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump, are mapping out an election-year agenda that showcases their policy priorities.

It is highly unlikely that the plan will prompt a genuine round of negotiations with the Republican-led Senate and the White House that would yield legislation that could be signed into law before the election. But the roll-out suggests that Democrats intend to spend the coming months passing a slate of popular infrastructure Bills to show voters, then seek to blame Republicans and the White House if they fail to succeed.

Nine months before Election Day, a US$1 trillion infrastructure plan is still one of Mr Trump's unfulfilled promises from his inaugural campaign.

The Senate has begun work on its own infrastructure legislation, with one highway Bill passing unanimously out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

NYTIMES