Trump agrees to pursue $2 trillion infrastructure package, Schumer says

By John T. Bennett

CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON, D.C. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders agreed Tuesday to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure package, which he called a bigger amount than previously had been discussed.

The two sides had a more “productive” meeting than their past get-togethers, which included one Trump stormed out of last year after four minutes of bickering with Democrats in the Situation Room about border security spending.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer spoke to reporters outside the White House, with Pelosi defining the issue as about “clean” air and water, adding that is the kind of “agenda” Democrats would support.

But earlier, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said administration officials “think infrastructure is what America thinks infrastructure is.”

That means repairing aging roads, bridges and the air travel system, Conway said, knocking Democrats for floating a plan Monday that called for guarantees that any legislation include “clean energy” provisions.

Schumer describe the president as “eager” to keep talking and willing to spend $2 trillion on an infrastructure bill even as he spends ample time in public remarks railing against federal spending.

Asked if investigating Trump or passing an infrastructure bill is of bigger importance to Democrats, Pelosi said her party is focused on meeting its obligations to the American people. Schumer was more explicit.

“I think that we can do both,” the New York Democrat said. “The two aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Unlike past meetings, the president made no threats about torpedoing bipartisan efforts if House Democrats’ probes continue, Schumer said.

After both sides had set a low bar for much beyond the closed-door session, the Democratic leaders announced the two sides will meet again in three weeks to discuss how to pay for such a $2 trillion package.

Trump agreed to present his administration’s proposals to pay for an infrastructure overhaul bill at the second meeting in a few weeks, Schumer told reporters.

After Conway said several hours earlier that the White House views expanding rural broadband access as part of any potential infrastructure modernization, Pelosi said the president agreed — for the first time in their conversations — to include that. Such an ambitious and sweeping project would dramatically increase the price tag.

“We hope to go forward in a very nonpartisan way,” the California Democrat said, shortly after acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told a conference in California that getting Trump’s proposed trade pact with Canada and Mexico through both chambers stood a better chance than doing the same with an infrastructure bill.

Mulvaney was critical of some House Democrats calling for impeachment, saying having those proceedings one day and then a hearing on infrastructure is “not how the world works, let alone Washington, D.C.,” according to a local media report.

Conway had suggested the president is hopeful an agreement eventually can be reached on a matter he made a major 2016 campaign promise but has yet to deliver. Trump likely would be willing to negotiate with Democrats on some of the clean energy and other items Democrats want included, she said.

“I believe that some of them (Democrats) believe it’s also about building schools and hospitals, or dog parks and more bike trails. So maybe that’s for negotiation because we have to have a very big, robust plan to help … the number of roads and bridges that are way behind schedule,” she said.

The second meeting will be critical, and could decide whether infrastructure legislation is even crafted during Trump’s current term.

That’s because “it’s going to come down to money and pay-fors, as always,” said G. William Hoagland, who was an aide to former GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Also at the meeting was Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., who told reporters at the Capitol that among the extraneous topics of discussion was health care, including the possibility of revisiting the Alexander-Murray legislation, a bipartisan health care stabilization measure written by Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray that was rejected by conservatives.