In response to last week’s release of President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion-plus infrastructure proposal, Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives outlined a $1 trillion infrastructure plan of their own.
The Democratic plan was included in a “Better Deal” policy package that supporters say will raise wages and create jobs across the country. The infrastructure portion of the document, dubbed “A Better Deal to Rebuild America,” promises “a historic $1 trillion federal investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create more than 16 million American jobs.”
Democratic lawmakers have previously countered GOP-proposed infrastructure spending plans. In January 2017, Senate Democrats proposed an additional $110 billion over the next 10 years as part of a $1 trillion infrastructure spending plan in response to Trump’s then-campaign season pledge for $1 trillion in new spending on American infrastructure.
The new Democratic plan is not necessarily expected to be molded into actual legislation. Instead, A Better Deal to Rebuild America appears destined to serve as a counterpoint to a long-awaited set of infrastructure principles Trump released last week along with his FY19 budget proposal.
The plan does not offer any specific legislative language, indicate where the money would come from or explain how it would be distributed among various infrastructure sectors, but drinking water and wastewater systems are highlighted in the document. Calling water “the lifeblood of any community,” the plan promises to “restore our historical commitment to addressing our drinking and wastewater infrastructure so that all Americans in both urban and rural areas have reliable access to safe and clean water.” There are no specific dollar amounts tied to the promised drinking water investments.
