Trump Administration’s Infrastructure Week Reveals Policy Details

Last week, President Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, launched the White House’s Infrastructure Week and revealed several high-level details on the administration’s forthcoming infrastructure package.

On June 5, President Trump and Vice President Pence delivered speeches to introduce the administration’s Air Traffic Reform Initiative, an effort that aims to modernize and privatize the air traffic control sector.

On June 8, Trump and Pence hosted the administration’s first infrastructure summit. While Pence spoke at the summit’s working luncheon, Trump joined several governors and mayors from across the country in a roundtable discussion on infrastructure.

The President revealed the creation of a new council on construction permitting and approvals to “help project managers navigate the bureaucratic maze,” according to his speech at a Department of Transportation (DOT) rally on June 9.

“This council will also improve transparency by creating a new online dashboard allowing everyone to easily track major projects through every stage of the approval process,” Trump said. “This council will make sure that every federal agency that is consistently delaying projects by missing deadlines will face tough, new penalties…We will hold the bureaucracy accountable.”

Trump also said the administration’s efforts for “massive permit reform” has led to the creation of a new office in the Council of Environmental Quality, whose goal is to “root out inefficiency” and “streamline federal and state and local procedures.”

According to the White House website, President Trump included $200 billion in his budget proposal as part of a $1 trillion investment plan to rebuild infrastructure. A series of infographics on the plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure has been posted on the White House blog, including a goal to create one million registered apprentices across all industries in two years, which is double the current number of 500,000.