To read the Administration’s preliminary budget – released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a week ago – you might not realize that this is the same President who ran on a platform to rebuild America’s infrastructure and create jobs.

Referred to as the “skinny budget,” by the Administration, this preliminary FY 2018 federal budget targets the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for a $2.4 billion budget reduction, and a $946 million reduction to the department’s FY 2017 budget.  Included in those reductions will be the elimination of many of the Department’s discretionary grant programs – TIGER, FAST Lane, new starts, small starts, essential air service, and Amtrak’s long-distance train service – and research programs including intelligent transportation systems and vehicle safety.  The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s community block grant program are also on the chopping block.

In light of the Administration’s pledge to raise $1 trillion over ten years for infrastructure, DOT Secretary Elaine Chao, speaking last week at the 50^th anniversary celebration of the Department’s creation, suggested that regulatory reform will be the key to unleashing private sector investment to build and improve the nation’s infrastructure.

Chao said that the forthcoming infrastructure package will be, “a strategic, targeted program that will cover more than transportation infrastructure, it will include energy, water and potentially broadband and veterans hospitals as well.”  The DOT secretary went on to say that the Administration plans to offer incentives for public-private partnerships rather than simply fund improvements.

“Investors say there is ample capital available waiting to invest in infrastructure projects,” Chao said. “So the problem is not money. It’s the delays caused by government permitting processes that hold up projects for years, even decades, making them risky investments. That’s why a critical part of the president’s infrastructure plan will include common sense regulatory, administrative, organizational, and policy changes that will encourage investment and speed project delivery,” Chao observed.

Despite Secretary Chao’s upbeat statements, many observers, including members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as well as the Senate Commerce Committee doubt that Congress will be able to move on transportation until 2018 at the earliest, and senior Presidential advisors speaking anonymously say they believe there is political advantage for addressing infrastructure closer to the mid-term elections in 2018.

Though this may not be very rosy scenario, the good news is that in the world of federal budgeting and spending, the President proposes, and the Congress disposes. Judging from the reaction of most members of congress, it appears that the President’s proposal is dead on arrival, but there are and will continue to be other proposals from members of the House and Senate that may offer a better chance of actually becoming law.

Additionally, there is a lot that states, local communities, and economic development authorities can do to help themselves to advance their infrastructure and job creation initiatives even if federal resources are diminished. From our perspective, now is the time to assemble those project plans, get those projects into the pipeline, communicate those plans to your representatives in congress, and consider strategies that will bring a multitude of federal, state, local and private sector funding and financing sources together to make these projects reality.