President Trump is expected to announce Monday that he will move to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system as part of an infrastructure reform push this week.
A White House official confirmed to ABC News that, as first reported by the Washington Post, the administration will hold multiple events next week related to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.
The expected announcements come as former FBI Director James Comey is set testify on Capitol Hill Thursday about aspects of the Russia probe that has plagued the administration.
Executives of major airlines are expected to join him for the announcement about air traffic control at the White House.
The president’s thinking on air traffic control was also reported after Trump met with airline CEOs in February. That idea faced some pushback from the Federal Aviation Administration, which said in a statement that the FAA has already spent $7.5 billion appropriated by Congress to update the system for managing air traffic.
Trump will travel to Cincinnati on Wednesday where he’ll deliver remarks on the Ohio River bordering Kentucky laying out his plan for $1 trillion of new investments in roads, waterways and other infrastructure. The full formal plan isn’t expected to be introduced until later this summer.
Then on Thursday, the day of Comey’s testimony, the president will welcome a bipartisan group of mayors and governors to the White House for an ‘infrastructure summit.’