Things aren’t looking so hot for President Trump’s illusory promise to deliver $1 trillion in infrastructure spending.
Turns out his fledgling Advisory Council on Infrastructure, established by executive order July 19, won’t see the light of day. This followed the dissolution of three advisory councils (two business, one arts), prompted by their members quitting to protest Trump’s comments on the violent Charlottesville, Virginia, rally.
Too bad about the infrastructure council. Considering what little progress he’s made, Trump could’ve used some help.
On Aug. 15, the president signed an executive order to reduce the permitting process to two years for infrastructure projects. He claimed that environmental permitting is holding up major plans, many of them freight-related.
That drew a rebuttal from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, reported ForConstructionPros.com.
“Less than 1% of federal infrastructure projects require the type of rigorous environmental review he lamented yesterday,” DeFazio said, citing the Council on Environmental Quality and the Congressional Research Service. “He is ignoring the fact that it will take real federal investment and partnership with the states to rebuild our infrastructure.”
Indeed. Congress has for years dodged fixing the bankrupt Highway Trust Fund. It’s handicapped by a fuel tax-based formula that hasn’t kept up with economic changes, as well as political cowardice to raises taxes.
