Don’t count out an infrastructure bill for 2018 just yet.
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., is leading an effort in the House to introduce a spending bill this year, a move that comes after the White House recently signaled the issue is on the back burner for the remainder of the year.
Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is working with other members of the committee to release legislation this summer, according to the committee.
“Chairman Shuster believes that action on infrastructure should remain a priority for Congress this year,” a committee spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “There is strong interest from Committee members to introduce a bill and he is working with his colleagues to produce a measure this summer.”
President Trump has been promising a massive infrastructure plan since the 2016 campaign. In February, the White House issued a blueprint for lawmakers that would allocate $200 billion in federal funding to spur a minimum of $1.3 trillion in infrastructure spending from state and local governments, in addition to the industry.
But Trump said this year that an infrastructure overhaul would probably come after the midterm elections in November, and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders echoed similar sentiments last month.
“We’re going to continue looking at ways to improve that nation’s infrastructure, but in terms of a specific piece of legislation, I’m not aware that that will happen by the end of the year,” Sanders said in May.
Joseph Kane, a senior research analyst and associate fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, said infrastructure-related legislation that Congress has devoted attention to this year — the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill and the Water Resources Development Act — have contributed to the recent push to get an infrastructure bill underway.
“Those pieces of legislation together have clearly resulted in some additional momentum and support, at least on the Hill, of getting something done,” Kane said. “The question is whether this is more rhetoric or is it actually the sign of tangible, bipartisan legislation coming into greater focus.”
Kane said he suspects the plan will include reforms to fast-track infrastructure projects and call for private-led investment as it relates to paying for infrastructure projects. However, he noted those issues may turn off some members of Congress because they were also priorities in the administration’s blueprint.
“I imagine those would be potential talking points related to any infrastructure piece of legislation,” Kane said. “Whether those actually appear in a bill remains to be seen, and if they did, that might limit the bill’s ultimate reach, at least when it comes to the bipartisan support.”
Meanwhile Shuster, who announced this year he would not be seeking reelection in 2018, has long said an infrastructure plan must be a bipartisan effort.
“Passage of an infrastructure bill will require presidential leadership and bipartisan congressional cooperation,” Shuster said in a statement after the White House’s infrastructure proposal was released in February.
Robert Puentes, the president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, said he anticipates controversial items will remain out of the House’s legislation, but also suspects reforms to the permit process will be addressed in the measure. He also has an inkling that a rural infrastructure program, which was also a priority in Trump’s blueprint, will be included.
“Those are the things that they have talked about that seem popular, that seem politically relevant, and probably are the things that may be in there,” Puentes said.
However, Puentes doesn’t believe that Shuster’s proposal will address funding aspects for the plan.
“I don’t think they’re going to address the financial part at all,” Puentes said.
Instead, Puentes said he expects the appropriations will be handled by another committee later.
Kane said he is not confident that an infrastructure measure would be passed this year, but acknowledged that Shuster and another leadership in the House may aim for such a milestone.
Yet Kane said he anticipates that smaller pieces of legislation will be introduced addressing topics such as the infrastructure workforce.
“If anything, as we’ve seen over the past year, I think we’ll continue to see smaller, almost ‘marker bills’ coming out about some admittedly very important topics,” Kane said.
