PRESS RELEASE
The Trump Budget cuts transportation funding by 13% while proposing $200 billion intended to “leverage” private sector and local government resources for infrastructure.
Higgins raised concern about passing down this federal responsibility to local taxpayers or increasing the likelihood of new tolls and fees under private sector infrastructure ownership. The Congressman noted that the tradition of federal investments in infrastructure goes back to President Lincoln who called them “land improvements.”
Higgins said, “What the infrastructure investment does is it unleashes the resources of the private sector and you see that from Buffalo, New York to Boston, Massachusetts and throughout the nation. We need a more serious attempt to get away from building walls and build bridges and roads that are in desperate need of repair throughout America.”
Higgins is the lead sponsor of the Nation Building Here at Home Act, a bill that would invest $1.263 trillion in funding in projects over the next 5 years, a number that represents the difference between the projected infrastructure spending levels and the amount the American Society of Civil Engineers says is necessary to meet U.S. infrastructure needs.
