Schumer to GOP: Work with Dems on infrastructure

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is warning Republicans against trying to pass an infrastructure bill with only GOP support.

“The same problem they had with healthcare, the same problem they’re having with tax reform will repeat itself with infrastructure if you don’t do it in a bipartisan way … It’s a formula for failure that President Trump is advocating,” Schumer said.

During a call Monday night, an administration official initially floated using reconciliation, which would only require 51 votes, to pass infrastructure. The official later clarified that the White House still expects to need 60 votes. Both parties had touted infrastructure as a potential area where they could cut a deal, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he expects infrastructure to be bipartisan.

{mosads}Schumer urged Republicans on Tuesday to work with them on legislation.

“If the president wants to sit down with Democrats, of course we want to do it. … It’s up to our Republican colleagues here to teach him that working on a bipartisan way is the only way you can really get things done here,” he said.

But Democrats have appeared cool to Trump’s plan. Schumer added on Tuesday that the details released so far have been a “major disappointment.”

“The president’s plan is a recipe for Trump trolls, from one end of America to the other. That’s not what the American people are crying out for,” he said.

Trump’s infrastructure proposal, which was outlined in his budget request last month, would spend $200 billion to inject $1 trillion worth of overall investment into the nation’s transportation system by largely incentivizing private firms to back projects.