The Trump Administration’s infrastructure plans remain stalled, with many expecting that a piece of legislation will be ready for approval this summer. Bill Shuster, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman, is reportedly pushing members of the Republican party to pass a bipartisan bill before he retires at the end of his term.
A poll conducted at Monmouth University found that 55% of respondents didn’t believe the president was giving infrastructure the attention it deserved.
The poll found that just 10% thought it was very likely that a new infrastructure plan will be approved.
“Infrastructure Week,” also took place this month in an attempt to reinvigorate the idea of an infrastructure overhaul. A member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee claims that there’s “just no energy left in it” when discussing the infrastructure plan.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also cast doubt on the potential for a bill to pass this year.
Sanders danced around the topic, praising the small funding that has been approved for some plans, but still states that there is no specific piece of legislation that will happen, to her knowledge, by the end of the year. Citizens also fear that Congress will not be able to get together and agree upon such a large bill.
With many of the country’s cities requiring massive overhauls of their current sewer system infrastructure, cutting costs is important. Pittsburgh is slated to undergo a $2 billion infrastructure plan that will help the area reduce their wastewater overflows from 9 billion gallons down to zero through the expansion of a treatment plant and other measures.
But new technologies may allow some cities to save money on these costs.
“With new diagnostic tools available, the nature and location of your sewer line issue can be deduced before the job is even begun, as opposed to the previous reliance on speculation or digging the pipes out of the ground for an exterior inspection,” says Option One Plumbing & Rooter.
Even if cost-cutting measures are proposed, there appears to be little chance that anything will be passed.
“As far as I know, it’s been shredded, or burned, or something. It doesn’t exist,” Peter DeFazio said Wednesday of the president’s rebuilding blueprint. DeFazio is the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He claims that there has been no movement on the bill with Shuster.
The plan, which was unveiled in February, met quick opposition from Democratic lawmakers that claimed the plan focused too much on the private sector. The president’s plan was to provide $200 billion in federal funding with the goal of $1.5 trillion in private and local investments.
DeFazio claims that the only thing needed to fulfill the plan is funding, and he harshly claims that Speaker Paul Ryan is opposed to any additional funding. DeFazio claims he has told the president to push Republicans for funding, and that the president has not done so.
