The two have reportedly agreed “to meet soon,” according to White House spokesman Judd Deere.
President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif., have reportedly “agreed to meet soon to discuss working together on infrastructure,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said according to The New York Times.
“The president wants a bipartisan infrastructure package that rebuilds crumbling infrastructure, invests in the projects and industries of tomorrow and promotes permitting efficiency,” Deere said according to the Washington Examiner.
Republicans and Democrats have had different scopes when it comes to infrastructure legislation. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., told the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) earlier this year he expects the Democrat-led House infrastructure package to be broader than the one out of the Senate.
Pelosi also told reporters last week she would like to see an investment of up to $2 trillion for infrastructure and would discuss with President Trump how much should be financed.
“I do think that there’s plenty of room for bipartisanship,” Pelosi said on Friday. “As I have said before and I’ll say again: The President has said, over and over again, he wants to do an infrastructure bill — so do we, and we’re going to — we’re making progress as to what the parameters of that would be, timewise and financially.”
On Thursday, she said, “Left to his own devices, I think sometimes the president would be agreeable to these things.”
Pelosi continued, “I have poo-pooed his $200 billion infrastructure bill that said to the communities, ‘You do 80 percent, we do 20 percent.’ … It does nothing, and I think he knows that that was probably not a successful path to infrastructure from sea to shining sea.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel, R.-Ky., said financing was a major obstacle to completing a legislation package, The New York Times reported.
Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has repeatedly called for the increase in the federal gas tax, and Graves has advocated for the use of a vehicle-miles traveled program to support the Highway Trust Fund.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told a Senate appropriations subcommittee last month that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to funding the Highway Trust Fund. She reiterated that sentiment last week to a House appropriations subcommittee.
