GOP signals infrastructure bill must wait

The timing and fate of President Trump’s infrastructure plan may depend on whether the GOP enacts major tax reform — a task that could prove challenging amid the struggle to pass a healthcare bill.

Republicans are signaling that a massive rebuilding package, which has long been one of Trump’s top priorities, will most likely have to wait on the sidelines until lawmakers overhaul the tax code.

But with that process likely to be just as time-consuming and daunting as healthcare, infrastructure could be pushed to the back burner.
“I’d like to see infrastructure get done,” Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the Senate’s No. 3 Republican and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told reporters Wednesday. “But I’ve always said, that in terms of how things are sequenced, it’s more likely that they would do tax reform first. And that might push infrastructure into sometime next year.”

Congressional Republicans have been weighing their next legislative steps after an effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare stalled in the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the GOP would now be moving on “to comprehensive tax reform and to infrastructure,” though he is still pushing toward a healthcare vote next week.

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/342835-gop-signals-infrastructure-bill-must-wait

Take your time. I'm not so eager to sell off our roads, bridges and airports.