President Donald Trump touted his administration’s plan to invest in American infrastructure reform in a Monday tweet.
This will be a big week for Infrastructure. After so stupidly spending $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in OUR Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2018
Infrastructure investment has long been a priority of the Trump administration. The President will unveil a plan Monday to invest approximately $200 billion across a decade. Trump wants the plan to trigger approximately 1.5 trillion dollars in infrastructure spending across the nation with investment incentives for state and local governments.
Officials told reporters approximately 100 billion of the federal dollars would be used to fund 20 percent of state and local projects. To avoid placing an undue burden on rural state and local taxpayers, the plan will allocate an additional $50 billion
Trump’s plan centers around removing the burdensome permitting process for state and local governments who wish to fund infrastructure projects. A senior administration official told reporters Saturday that 100 percent of infrastructure projects must be federally approved despite only 14 percent having any federal funding whatsoever.
The administration officials however could not point to how exactly the plan will be paid for. “This is the start of a negotiation,” they declared.