November 9, 2016–During the just-concluded presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump proposed an “America’s Infrastructure First” policy, including investments in telecommunications infrastructure, with a target figure of $1 trillion, although it’s unclear whether that would be just for transportation infrastructure, or whether that would cover other sectors as well. “According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), without major improvements to our transportation systems, ‘the United States will lose more than 2.5 million jobs by 2025’ (NAM, Build To Win, 2016). NAM estimates a ‘ten-year funding gap’ of approximately $1 trillion. The Trump Infrastructure Plan is aimed at achieving a target of investment to fill this gap. NAM also found that $8 billion in infrastructure tax credits would support $226 billion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. Innovative financing programs also provide a 10-to-1 return on investment,” he says in a vision statement on his campaign website.
Separately, it cites a “Wall Street Journal” statement on potential spending on energy infrastructure: “[M]ore than a dozen [energy infrastructure] projects, worth about $33 billion, have been either rejected by regulators or withdrawn by developers since 2012, with billions more tied up in projects still in regulatory limbo.”
The vision statement describes the plan as revenue-neutral. The proposal would “create thousands of new jobs in construction, steel manufacturing, and other sectors to build the transportation, water, telecommunications and energy infrastructure needed to enable new economic development in the U.S., all of which will generate new tax revenues,” the statement says.
Mr. Trump’s “100-day plan” includes withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement negotiated by the Obama administration. Congress has not yet passed implementing legislation.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said in a public letter to her Democratic colleagues today that she had spoken with President-elect Trump to congratulate him and had discussed the “support of House Democrats to find common ground for a robust infrastructure jobs bill.” —Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com
Courtesy TRDaily