“Energy prices are crushing American families, but President Trump is reducing regulations and unleashing American energy independence,” Graves said. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)
Congressional transportation leaders are lining up behind President Donald Trump’s call to action to streamline infrastructure construction regulations and jump-start domestic energy initiatives.
“Energy prices are crushing American families, but President Trump is reducing regulations and unleashing American energy independence,” said Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, following Trump’s March 4 address to a joint session of Congress. “The federal government desperately needed to be reined in, and the president is doing exactly that.”
Trump during the 100-minute speech sought to supercharge congressional enthusiasm for his 100-day policy agenda. The president’s priorities are expected to be included in a comprehensive budget package policymakers are preparing as early as this month.
“We are off to a strong start already, but I know our brightest days are ahead,” added Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works panel. “I look forward to continuing our work together in Congress and with the Trump administration to ensure the president’s bold agenda becomes a reality. Doing so will allow us to deliver real results and solve real problems for so many in West Virginia and across our great nation.”
“We are off to a strong start already, but I know our brightest days are ahead,” Capito said. (Cliff Owen/Associated Press)
The House and Senate transportation panels will be among the committees drafting a budget measure designed to reflect the president’s vision. After budget instructions were approved last month, congressional Republican leaders are pushing for Trump’s major policy points to be ready for enactment this spring. The transportation panels have yet to schedule hearings on the procedural budget reconciliation, which would ultimately require simple majorities for enactment.
Topping Trump’s budget priorities include enhancing border security and military readiness, promoting reforms to the social safety net, boosting domestic energy and transportation operations and extending the 2017 tax cuts advanced during his first White House term. As Trump explained to the members of Congress, “The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over. And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) last month telegraphed his chamber’s path. “This budget resolution allows the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees to spend up to $175 billion in total to implement President Trump’s border security agenda,” he said. “It instructs the Armed Services Committee to spend up to $150 billion to make our military more lethal. It also allocates up to $20 billion to be spent to modernize the Coast Guard. It does not direct how money will be spent — it only sets a number. This budget resolution directs other Senate committees to find spending cuts to fully pay for the much-needed funding for border security and the U.S. military.”
(Associated Press via YouTube)
Since the start of the administration, Democrats have remained unified in their opposition to the White House’s primary policy aims, which they claim are funding reductions to key agencies. “Instead of focusing on driving costs down, in Donald Trump’s first month in office, inflation, rents, groceries and [President of Russia Vladimir] Putin’s influence are all on the rise. The stock market is plummeting as he starts ill-conceived trade wars with our allies — hurting our [farmers], families and 401(k)s,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the president’s address.
“Americans will look at what he has done, not what he says, and see the destruction he’s beginning to wreak on you, your family, and our country,” Schumer added, emphasizing his caucus will look to hold the “Trump administration accountable.”
In an interview with ABC News on March 4, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) argued, “We have Republicans that won the White House, the House, and the Senate by saying they were going to reduce costs, that they were going to help make our government more efficient. We agree with that message. So why are they doing just the opposite?”
Aspects of progressive Democrats’ Green New Deal policy guidance memo were included in 2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law has dedicated billions of dollars to improve operations along freight and commuter mobility corridors.
