BUENA PARK, California — Hillary Clinton, while campaigning in California, will commit to sending “a comprehensive infrastructure proposal to Congress in her first 100 days in office,” an aide said Wednesday.
This is the second piece of legislation Clinton has pledged to send to Congress in the first 100 days. The first was immigration.
The infrastructure proposal — which was first rolled out at a November event in Boston — will cost $275 billion.
Clinton, according to the aide, will say Wednesday that she “intends to add to that package by proposing additional measures to invest in infrastructure over the coming weeks.”
The aide added that, all told, the package would “represent the most significant increase in infrastructure investment since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System,” a 1956 act that built 47,856 miles of highway across America.
Clinton’s plan looks to increase infrastructure spending over the next five years in order to “bankroll upgrades to roads, bridges, airports and public transit.” The plan also includes establishing a $25 billion national infrastructure bank, which would put up federal dollars to attract private investment.
“To build a strong economy for our future, we must start by building strong infrastructure today,” Clinton said in November. “I want our cities to be in the forefront of cities anywhere in the world. I want our workers to be the most competitive and productive in the world. I want us, once again, to think big and look up, beyond the horizon of what is possible in America.”
The plan also calls for universal broadband by 2020 and more focus on creating a clean energy grid.
Clinton has not been alone in calling for more infrastructure spending. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s opponent for the nomination, has called for more than $1 trillion dollars in spending on the issue.
