Jan. 26, 2018 — On Jan. 22, the news agency, Axios, released an outline of the still-unreleased infrastructure plan being developed by President Trump. While the White House has not stated publicly that the document is real, reports in the media and from Capitol Hill are that it summarizes several key new infrastructure funding initiatives that the president will recommend when he releases the package to the U.S. Congress.
While the release date is still uncertain, once the package is released Congress will develop legislation that reflects the president’s recommendations or may disregard it entirely and develop their own infrastructure package.
The leaked outline does not include funding amounts or sources of funding, but it does identify percentages of funding that will be made available and criteria for receiving funding. It is important to note that the president has stated previously that funding for the package will not come from raiding funding for existing federal infrastructure funding programs, such as the State Revolving Funds, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or the USDA Rural Development program.
The president’s fiscal year (FY) 2018 budget proposal to Congress in early 2017 severely reduced funding for many federal agencies — such as cutting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by 30% — and set aside $10 billion for an infrastructure package. Although the FY18 budget is still being completed by Congress, the draft appropriations bills have generally rejected the president’s cuts to federal agencies.
The leaked outline proposes several new approaches to incentivize increased funding for infrastructure by requiring states, local governments, and private investors to provide capital to match federal dollars. It also requires that many projects will need to have mechanisms in place to generate revenue to repay the federal and non-federal loans. Innovative and transformative projects also are an area of focus for projects. Generally, water infrastructure projects will be competing directly with other forms of infrastructure.
An area of concern for WEF will likely be a recommendation in the outline to expand EPA’s WIFIA program to make flood control, brownfield, navigation, and water supply projects eligible for WIFIA loans. The outline leaves many questions unanswered about how project selection and criteria will be addressed. The president’s full infrastructure package hopefully will address those questions.
See the full leaked draft infrastructure plan.
