Hill Consideration of Infrastructure Legislation Will Likely 'Wait Until After' Midterm Elections, Trump Says
Serious Hill consideration of an infrastructure legislative package will “probably have to wait until after” the November midterm elections, President Donald Trump cautioned in a Thursday speech in Richfield, Ohio, that was aimed at touting the proposal he released in…
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February. Trump's plan proposes $50 billion in federal funding for rural infrastructure projects allocated via state block grants that could be spent for broadband. It would also deal with streamlining broadband-related regulations (see 1802120001). Trump cited his January executive order and presidential memorandum aimed at improving broadband deployments in rural areas (see 1801080060 and 1801080063) as one of the “first elements of this plan” that “have already been put into place.” The infrastructure proposal would help people who “have not been taken care of by the Democrats,” Trump said. He blamed Hill Democrats for causing much of the delay in advancing infrastructure legislation, because they “say 'don't give him any more wins'” similar to the December tax cut bill before the election. Democrats have strongly pushed for direct funding, but the Trump proposal's approach to broadband infrastructure has also drawn criticism from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and some other Republicans (see 1802140052, 1802140064 and 1803010050). GOP lawmakers also raised concerns about how to pay for the full $200 billion the Trump plan proposes. House Commerce Committee Republicans highlighted a series of infrastructure-related bills originating within the committee “that fit the president’s vision,” including a bevy of broadband bills that they're sorting through after a January House Communications hearing that they intend to blend into legislation to reflect Trump's proposal (see 1801300051 and 1803080062). Language from five of those bills made it into the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill that Trump signed last week (see 1803210041, 1803210068, 1803220048 and 1803230038), including via the text of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986), House Commerce said. The included bills were the Communications Facilities Deployment on Federal Property Act (HR-4795), the Inventory of Assets for Communications Facilities Act (HR-4798), the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act (HR-4800), the Making Available Plans to Promote Investment in Next Generation Networks Without Overbuilding and Waste (Mapping Now) Act (HR-4810) and the Broadband Deployment Streamlining Act (HR-4847).