U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has said infrastructure is one area where he and his fellow Democrats might find common ground with President Donald Trump and Republicans. But Brown said details about the president's infrastructure effort is giving him pause.
President Trump is proposing a $1.5 trillion overhaul of everything from the nation’s broadband network to its highway system over the next 10 years. But less than a fifth of that funding would come from the federal government. Much of the rest would come from private investment, which would levy tolls, and from local and state governments whose elected officials say they’re already strapped.
The administration also is talking about waiving environmental regulations for projects. Sen. Brown said that’s not a way to rebuild the system:
“We shouldn't be doing infrastructure in the sort of Wall Street way of rolling back environmental rules, tolling roads – these so called 'Trump tolls' that some are calling this," said Brown. "You simply can’t toll everything and think it creates enough money to do real infrastructure.”
Brown also objected to suggestions that prevailing wage requirements should be waived on the projects to bring the costs down. He and other Democrats have proposed an alternative $1 trillion plan they say would create 15 million jobs over 10 years.