Trump Wants $1.5 TRILLION For Infrastructure; One-Fourth For Rural Projects

By Chuck Abbott

After declaring “America is a nation of builders,” President Trump asked Congress to write a bill that would fund $1.5 trillion in “gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land” — much of it financed by state, local, and private-sector money. A quarter of the federal funds would be earmarked for rural projects, including broadening access to high-speed internet service, said the White House. “Any bill must also streamline the permitting and approval process — getting it down to no more than two years, and perhaps even one,” said the president. “I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure that our economy needs and our people deserve.” A rural prosperity report delivered to Trump early this month listed universal rural access to broadband service as a springboard for economic growth. For years, farm and agribusiness groups have called for updated roads and an overhaul of the nation’s inland waterways. Much of the navigation system on the Upper Mississippi River, for example, was built during the Depression. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce backs an increase in the federal fuel tax — it would be the first increase in a quarter-century — to help pay for infrastructure projects...more