President Trump said Wednesday he plans to discuss a $1.7 trillion infrastructure package during next week’s annual State of the Union address.
During a White House meeting with mayors from across the country, Trump said his administration is “working to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure by stimulating a $1 trillion investment, and that will actually, probably, end up being about $1.7 trillion.”
“And we’ll probably be putting that in a week or two, right after the State of the Union address. We’ll be talking about it a little bit in the State of the Union; we’ll put that in,” he added.
The impending announcement comes after a document purporting to detail the administration’s infrastructure principles leaked earlier this week.
The White House refused to comment on the substance of that document, but said it “looks forward to presenting our plan in the near future.”
The Trump administration previously said it would release “detailed legislative principles” on an infrastructure package this month.
Trump vowed to repair the nation’s roads, bridges and transit systems during his presidential campaign, but that effort was put on hold in the first year of his presidency as the GOP pursued health care and tax reform.
Lawmakers in both parties are eager to work on an infrastructure plan and address pressing issues like the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund, which provides financing to build roads.
Trump has proposed using private investment to fund his forthcoming infrastructure plan.
In a budget request last year, the administration proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure investment through both federal funding and private sector investment.
One portion of the memo that leaked earlier this week indicates that half of the appropriations would go toward private, state and local investment in infrastructure projects through grants.
The draft also specifically proposes removing “constraints” currently in place on public-private partnerships for transit systems.