The mood on Capitol Hill is suitable to advancing a long-term infrastructure funding package, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee said he told Vice President Mike Pence this week.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the panel’s ranking member, was among the senators invited to the White House on March 28 to socialize with President Trump.
“I took the occasion to talk to the vice president and said, ‘I think the time might be right for us to consider a bipartisan infrastructure bill,” Nelson said during a hearing on March 29 on the nomination of Jeffrey Rosen to be deputy secretary of transportation.
Nelson went on to urge Rosen, if confirmed, to gather bipartisan support for an infrastructure bill, adding: “Now we can all agree on infrastructure, but the question [is] how you going to pay for it.”
A vote to advance Rosen’s nomination to the Senate is expected shortly. At the hearing, Rosen would not endorse the Obama-era Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants. Trump’s so-called “skinny” budget for fiscal 2018 proposes not funding the TIGER grants awarded to states since 2009.
This week, the Trump White House expressed interest in advancing an overhaul of tax policy and infrastructure funding measures after their dramatic and unsuccessful attempt to reform health care.
