WASHINGTON – The Latest on President Donald Trump’s infrastructure proposal (all times local):
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12:01 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan calls for possibly selling two of the three major airports serving the nation’s capital.
The president is calling for divesting federal assets when agencies can show the sale would “optimize taxpayer value.”
The proposal lists Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport as examples of assets that could be sold.
Other such examples of federal assets to be divested include transmission lines operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Bonneville Power Administration. Similar plans in the past have been met with stiff, bipartisan opposition.
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Trump is also citing two major roadways in the Washington D.C. region that could be sold: the George Washington Memorial and Baltimore-Washington parkways.
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11:30 a.m.
President Donald Trump is urging Congress to pass what he’s calling the “biggest and boldest” infrastructure plan.
Trump is making his case as he meets with a group of local and state officials, including governors, state legislators, mayors and country commissioners.
Trump says local leaders understand the challenges of funding infrastructure and says his is a “common sense and bipartisan plan” that Congress should support.
He also says Washington should be a partner to local governments and no longer “a roadblock to progress.”
Trump’s plan envisions using $200 billion in federal money to leverage local and state tax dollars to fix roads, highways, ports and airports.
The plan would fulfill a key campaign goal but rely heavily on state and local government budgets.
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10:10 a.m.
President Donald Trump is meeting with a group of governors, mayors and local leaders at the White House to build support for his infrastructure proposal.
The White House says the meeting will include governors from eight states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Maine, New Mexico, Virginia, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
A number of mayors will be attending from cities like Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Texas, Charlotte, North Carolina and Wichita, Kansas. The gathering will also include state legislators and county commissioners.
The White House is releasing a 55-page “legislative outline” on the proposal, which envisions spurring $1.5 trillion in spending over a decade to rebuild roads, highways and airports.
The proposal would rely heavily on state and local government for much of the funding.
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8:05 a.m.
President Donald Trump is predicting a “big week” for the roll out of his administration’s infrastructure plan.
The president tweeted Monday that after “so stupidly spending $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in OUR Country!”
The White House is unveiling its goal of spurring $1.5 trillion in funding over 10 years to rebuild roads, highways, ports and airports. The plan centers on using $200 billion in federal money to leverage local and state dollars for the projects.
Trump is meeting with state and local leaders at the White House on Monday to discuss the plan.
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1 a.m.
President Donald Trump is unveiling his long-awaited infrastructure plan, a $1.5 trillion proposal that fulfills a number of his campaign goals. But it relies heavily on state and local governments to produce much of the funding.
The administration’s plan is centered on using $200 billion in federal money to leverage local and state tax dollars to fix America’s infrastructure, such as roads, highways, ports and airports.
Trump has repeatedly blamed the “crumbling” state of the nation’s roads and highways for preventing the American economy from reaching its full potential. Many in Washington believe that Trump should have begun his term a year ago with an infrastructure push, one that could have garnered bipartisan support or, at minimum, placed Democrats in a bind for opposing a popular political measure.
