A new infrastructure rebuilding initiative announced by President Obama during his State of the Union address earlier this month would largely focus on improving transportation infrastructure, according to information released by White House last week.
The “fix-it-first” policy announced during the speech would “immediately invest $50 billion in our nation’s transportation infrastructure, with $40 billion targeted to the most urgent upgrades,” said a fact sheet on the proposal made public on February 20. The policy has no water infrastructure component.
Water projects would be eligible for funding through a national infrastructure bank that President Obama also proposed, but they would compete against “a broad range” of other projects, including transportation and energy efforts.
The lack of specific attention to water may have few policy ramifications in the near-term, however, as President Obama has offered similar transportation-focused infrastructure proposals in the past, and none have advanced through Congress.