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December 16: Another Winning Trump Sector:
Transportation
Speaking of roads, one of the hottest sectors has been the transportation
sector. The Dow Jones Transportation Average is up about 12% just since Nov. 8
and up nearly 25% year-to-date.
March 10:
Donald Trump, says he wants to rebuild America’s
infrastructure and expand its military while cutting personal and corporate
taxes, and shielding entitlements like Social Security.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
[Republican] has expressed doubts about a
big government
infrastructure spending plan.
https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/u-s-budget-battles March 16: The “blueprint budget” offers a
series of sizable cutsin domestic spending,
totaling $54 billion, including reductions that would target transportation
funding, community development, and public housing. If this budget is adopted by
Congress, these cuts could create massive shortfalls in city and local budgets
and hinder future plans for reinvesting in urban communities.
March 17:"For someone who says he wants to invest in infrastructure, I don't see
any evidence of it in this budget," said Beth Osborne, a senior policy adviser
at Transportation for America, a nonpartisan group that urges investment in
transportation.
http://www.selectsmart.com/DISCUSS/read.php?16,1081289
May 1:
[Trump] ... We're going to do infrastructure very quickly. We've got the
plan largely completed, and we'll be filing over the next two or three weeks,
maybe sooner.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-oval-office-interview-cbs-this-morning-full-transcript/
May 17: Sens.
Mark Warner (D-Va.) and
Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are spearheading the new legislative effort, which
would leverage money from the private sector through a newly created investment
bank to help upgrade U.S. roads, bridges and other public works.
"We must think boldly and make real investments in our nation’s infrastructure
rather than kick the can down the road with short-term fixes,” Warner said.
“This legislation will set a clear framework that will help create jobs, expand
U.S. commerce and trade, and keep American businesses competitive.”
For the main highway and transit programs under the Highway Trust Fund, the
budget for the first year would hold to levels Congress authorized in 2015
through the Fixing American's Surface Transportation Act – $44.234 billion in
obligation authority for the highway program and $9.733 billion for transit
formula grants.
However, after the 2018 budget year that starts Oct. 1 it would cap their
funding in 2019 and 2020 at the 2018 level instead of providing the modest
annual increases the FAST Act authorized.
The Trump budget also proposed cutting transit, passenger rail and grant
programs outside the trust fund, plus rural aviation support, grants to replace
old diesel engines, navigation programs and others.
In addition, beyond the 2020 expiration of the FAST Act the president's budget
assumes that HTF cash outlays will be limited to dedicated trust fund excise tax
receipts, for an estimated 40 percent cut in obligation authority for the
federal-aid highway program in 2021, and zeroing out transit formula grants
through 2023.
https://news.transportation.org/Pages/052617budget.aspx
June 5: The Trump
administration wants to turn over control of the nation's skies to private
business. ... "At a time when every passenger has GPS technology in their
pockets, our air traffic control system still runs on radar and ground-based
radio systems that they don't even make anymore. Many controllers must use slips
of paper to track our thousands and thousands of flights." ... The FAA has been
moving towards a GPS system for a number of years, but it's not scheduled to be
fully implemented until at least 2020.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/05/news/trump-privatize-air-traffic-control/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion
August 17: President Donald Trump will not
move forward with a planned Advisory Council on Infrastructure, a person
familiar with the matter said Thursday.
January 25: Trump boosts his infrastructure
investment plan to $1.7 trillion ...
-- U.S. President Donald Trump said his infrastructure plan would result in
about $1.7 trillion in overall investment
-- Trump previously valued the plan at $1 trillion.
-- The administration is expected to ask Congress for $200 billion in federal
spending on infrastructure aimed at encouraging more than $1 trillion in state,
local and private financing.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/25/trump-boosts-his-infrastructure-investment-plan-to-1-point-7-trillion.html
January 26: Deep underneath the Hudson River
between Manhattan and New Jersey lies a century-old rail tunnel, heavily damaged
during Superstorm Sandy, that still carries 200,000 riders per day.
Engineers say the tunnel should be replaced as soon as possible,
at a cost of $12.7 billion. In 2015, the Obama administration agreed to
supply half the funding for it, and designs are nearly complete.
But in December, President Trump's Federal Transit Administration
sent a letter to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey declaring the
deal "nonexistent."
February 10: The White House is circulating
a draft memo to more than a dozen federal agencies that would dramatically speed
up the time it takes to secure environmental permits for infrastructure
projects, according to a document obtained by POLITICO.
President Trump’s infrastructure plan calls for $200 billion in new spending, a
speedy permitting process and a rural investment fund, but won’t give any
special preference to the Gateway tunnel project — a
top priority for New York and New Jersey.
“While we certainly aren’t opposed to talking about Gateway, we’re not going to
start the discussion of rebuilding our entire nation with a single – albeit
large – project, especially not one where 90 percent of the benefits go to local
transit riders,” a senior Trump administration official told The Post.
https://nypost.com/2018/02/11/trumps-infrastructure-plan-doesnt-favor-gateway-tunnel-project/
February 11: Everybody seems to favor new and improved roads and
bridges. It’s finding the money to pay for them that’s the problem.
“[The Trump Administration is] not serious about infrastructure,” says a
representative of the business community familiar with the White House plans.
“They don’t want to put any new money into it. They’re going to use it as
political bait, to portray the Democrats as getting in the way of rebuilding the
country.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-half-hearted-infrastructure-plan-220006903.html
May 17: Trump's infrastructure plan hits a
dead end
President Trump’s legislative framework for a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s
infrastructure appears all but dead in Congress.
Lawmakers are focused on other legislative matters, and Democrats say the latest
“infrastructure week” that started Sunday has done little to reinvigorate the
president’s plan.
August 15: ... Trump’s unkept promises on
road-and-rail dollars have given transportation fans a mild case of whiplash.
But there may be worse harm in another infrastructure lapse on the part of this
administration, this one more basic: $1.4 billion promised to transit projects
across the U.S., still unallocated by the Federal Transit Administration for no
clear reason.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/08/the-14-billion-transit-fund-the-government-wont-release/567467/
October 6:President Trump Just Signed
a Law That Radically Changes Life for Airline Passengers, Flight Attendants, and
Airlines (Almost Nobody Even Noticed)
In the middle of the Supreme Court fight, the White House held a Friday
afternoon signing ceremony for this new, 1,200-page law.
October 31:President Donald Trump and Secretary Elaine L. Chao Announce Innovative
Drone Integration Pilot Program
President Donald J. Trump directed U.S. Secretary
of Transportation Elaine L. Chao today to launch an initiative to safely test
and validate advanced operations for drones in partnership with state and local
governments in select jurisdictions. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)
Integration Pilot Program implements a
directive signed by President Trump today, and the results will be used to
accelerate the safe integration of UAS into the national airspace and to realize
the benefits of unmanned technology in our economy.
https://www.transportation.gov/UAS-integration-pilot-program
