Letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer on Infrastructure Legislation

Dear Madam Speaker and Minority Leader Schumer:

I look forward to welcoming you and your colleagues to the White House tomorrow to continue our constructive discussion on investing in our Nation's infrastructure.

Before we get to infrastructure, it is my strong view that Congress should first pass the important and popular USMCA trade deal. This path-breaking deal, already agreed to by the governments of Canada and Mexico, will boost employment growth and create millions of high wage jobs. It will benefit farmers, manufacturing workers, unions, and businesses throughout our great nation. It will replace the job-killing NAFTA, one of the worst trade deals ever entered into by our Nation.

Once Congress has passed USMCA, we should tum our attention to a bipartisan infrastructure package. During our first meeting, we agreed that an infrastructure package should modernize our Nation's surface transportation systems, mass transit, airports, ports, and waterways. It should improve local wastewater facilities and local household water systems. It should invest in rural broadband and industries of the future, such as advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence. There were also areas where we diverged, but the Administration believes that energy permitting reforms and energy-related infrastructure investments are important priorities.

The highway trust fund is essentially bankrupt and needs to be reauthorized by September 2020. Hence, we believe that reauthorization is the best vehicle to achieve our goals.

It would be helpful if you came to tomorrow's meeting with your infrastructure priorities and specifics regarding how much funding you would dedicate to each. Your caucus has expressed a wide-range of priorities, and it is unclear which ones have your support. I had hoped that we could have worked out these priorities following our last meeting, but you cancelled a scheduled meeting of our teams, preventing them from advancing our discussions. Nevertheless, I remain committed to passing an infrastructure bill.

I am pleased that you have indicated that infrastructure is a bipartisan Congressional priority and that there are significant majorities in both the House and Senate to take action on the issue. There is no doubt that the American people want us to rebuild our infrastructure to improve the quality of life for all Americans. It is now time for us to follow the wishes of the American people and work together to pass a big and bold infrastructure bill.

Sincerely,

DONALD J. TRUMP