Pelosi-Schumer-Trump Infrastructure Plan Already Meeting Resistance

Introduced on April 30, the $2 trillion conceptual plan is likely to be dismissed by Congressional Republicans wary of increasing taxes and adding to the deficit, according to an extensive article by The Hill published three days later.

3 minute read

May 8, 2019, 1:00 PM PDT

By Irvin Dawid


Congressional Democrats

Michael Candelori / Shutterstock

When Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) emerged from a White House meeting on April 30, they announced that they had reached an agreement with President Trump to proceed with a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Conspicuously absent were any Republicans, not even members of the administration who had participated in the meeting, which should have been a clue to the challenges that await such an ambitious proposal.

"The next date to watch as this infrastructure plan develops is three weeks from now, when the trio will meet again, and President Trump is 'expected to tell them how he planned to actually pay for the ambitious project,'" wrote Planetizen editor James Brasuell on April 30. 

Whatever shape the payment plan takes, it will have to pass the GOP-controlled Senate, but according to Hill reporters Alexander BoltonJuliegrace Brufke, and Scott Wong, that is unlikely to happen for the same reasons that Trump's own plan met resistance from Congressional Republican leaders.

Federal gas tax and Highway Trust Fund reauthorization

"GOP lawmakers say the president’s grand proposal for a $2 trillion deal is too ambitious and warn that they will oppose any measure that adds to the deficit," they write.

Many Republicans also say they are against raising taxes to pay for an infrastructure initiative, a stance that would make it extremely difficult to find money to finance a package even half the size of Trump’s desired amount.

“I think $2 trillion is really ambitious. If you do a 35-cent increase in the gas tax, for example, indexed for inflation, it gets you only half a trillion [dollars],” said Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate GOP leader.

Unlike most of the 10 other Republican congress members quoted in the article, at least Thune did not rule out increasing the gas tax. The president is on record as supporting hiking the federal gas tax, stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, by a quarter per gallon.

“The other problem that’s going to come up is we’re bumping up against highway reauthorization,” said Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.). “That’s going to take a lot of dollars. The Highway Trust Fund is depleted … it’s going to be very difficult to fund that.”

Boozman raises a good point. Congress passed the current five-year reauthorization, known as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, in December 2015, so it expires in on Dec. 31, 2020. Keeping the Highway Trust Fund solvent should provide better bipartisan motivation for hiking the fuel tax. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how Speaker Pelosi champions the infrastructure plan, should one emerge with the White House, though the House.

Related in Planetizen:

Friday, May 3, 2019 in The Hill

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Interior of Place Versailles mall in Montreal, Canada.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units

Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

May 22, 2025 - CBC

Flat modern glass office tower with "County of Santa Clara" sign.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing

The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

May 23 - San Francisco Chronicle

Aerial view of dense urban center with lines indicating smart city concept.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant

A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

May 23 - Governing

Pale yellow Sears kit house with red tile roof in Sylva, North Carolina.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing

Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.

May 23 - The Daily Yonder