By Nandita Bose and Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will make a “massive” infrastructure announcement on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, echoing an unrealized promise during Trump’s first term to bolster aging America’s roads, bridges and other networks.
“It’s going to be a massive announcement and it’s going to prove that the world knows that America is back,” Leavitt said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.” The announcement would be at 4 p.m. (2100 GMT), Leavitt said without providing additional detail.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump promised to push a $1 trillion infrastructure bill through Congress. He talked about the topic as president often during his first term from 2017 to 2021, but never delivered on it, and “Infrastructure Week” became a punchline.
His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law in 2021 with Republican and Democrat lawmakers to fund thousands of projects to rebuild roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives.
As of Nov. 15 2024, the Biden administration had announced nearly $600 billion in funding and launched over 72,000 specific infrastructure projects and awards.
The second Trump administration and the new Congress will have opportunities to put their stamp on the infrastructure law Biden passed. Agency officials will be able to award tens of billions of dollars in remaining competitive grants, Brookings Institution said in a blog in November.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Nandita Bose; editing by Susan Heavey, Chizu Nomiyama and Heather Timmons)
