President Donald Trump dedicated a part of his first State of the Union address on Tuesday to the nation's "crumbling infrastructure," calling on Congress to create a $1.5 trillion bill to streamline permitting processes.
"Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit," Trump said. "And we can do it. Any bill must also streamline the permitting and approval process, getting it down to no more than two years, and perhaps even one. Together, we can reclaim our great building heritage. We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across our land."
American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear issued this statement following President Trump's State of the Union address:
"America's truckers commend President Trump for making infrastructure investment a priority of his presidency. While the state of our union is strong, the same cannot be said about the state of our roads and bridges. So therefore, we join the president in calling on Congress to work with the Administration on an infrastructure package that raises real revenue to meet the enormity of this challenge. Just as we did on tax reform, truckers are ready to help carry a solution forward.
"Roads are not a partisan issue – they're driven on by Republicans and Democrats alike. As both sides of Capitol Hill know, modernizing our infrastructure will require a substantial investment – actual, real revenue. America cannot be rebuilt with funding gimmicks and finance schemes.
"Trucking's proposal, the Build America Fund, is efficient, conservative and viable, and will generate $340 billion of real money in the first ten years. We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration and educating the public on why a fuel user fee is the most cost-effective and conservative answer to fixing our deteriorating roads and bridges."
