WASHINGTON (AP) Developments on Tuesday, April 30, about President Donald Trump’s meeting with top Democrats (all times Eastern Daylight Time).
- 1:15 p.m.
Presidential spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the infrastructure meeting between President Trump and Democratic lawmakers was “excellent and productive.”
Sanders said the United States has not come close to properly investing in infrastructure for many years, “foolishly prioritizing the interests of other countries over our own.” She did not elaborate.
Trump met with Democratic lawmakers at the White House, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying afterward Trump agreed to a $2 trillion price tag for infrastructure investments.
Still, the two sides haven’t decided on how to pay for it.
Sanders said a meeting on funding would take place before the end of May.
She also said Trump and the Democratic leaders agreed to a future meeting to discuss prescription drug prices.
She said the president believes drug prices should be much lower.
- 12:15 p.m.
Sen. Schumer called the $2 trillion figure a “very good thing” but said Trump pushed off tough questions about where the money would come from. Schumer said they told Trump their Democratic group needed his ideas on funding.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., added that the eventual agreement “will be big and it will be bold.”
Pelosi said they agreed to meet again to discuss how to pay for repairing repair roads, bridges, and other infrastructure around the country.
Infrastructure repair is one area where Republicans and Democrats feel they can work together despite the rampant partisanship in Washington.
- 11:50 a.m.
The president’s acting chief of staff said the tensions between the administration and Democrats in Congress could work against prospects for getting an infrastructure deal.
Mick Mulvaney said he believed there was a better chance of getting a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico approved than in getting infrastructure legislation passed.
Mulvaney spoke at a conference in California.
Mulvaney said he would be fascinated to find out whether the meeting between Trump and the top Congressional Democrats stayed on topic. Democratic lawmakers are also focused on investigating issues raised in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Mulvaney said having an impeachment hearing one day and talking about an infrastructure deal the next is “not how the world works, let alone Washington, D.C.”
- 10:35 a.m.
Presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway said President Trump is the “guy who lowers taxes” in an apparent reference to ruling out hiking the federal gasoline tax to pay for infrastructure repairs.
How to pay for the repairs is one of the big issues. The nation’s top business groups and labor unions support increasing the federal tax, currently 18.3 cents a gallon since it was last raised in 1993.
Asked whether Trump supported raising the gas tax, Conway said: “This president is the guy who lowers taxes.”
Conway acknowledged “there’s no question” that infrastructure repairs need to be paid for.
- 12:20 a.m.
The last time the president sat down with House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer, the president walked out in a huff and dismissed their government shutdown talks as a “total waste of time.”
Nearly four months later, the leaders were coming together again, this time to search for a plan to fix the country’s crumbling infrastructure.
It’s seen as the issue with the best chance for the two sides to work together this Congress — and even that isn’t given good odds for a fruitful ending.
Pelosi and Schumer sent Trump a letter in advance of the meeting outlining their priorities. They said they wanted to hear from him on how to pay for the improvements which was sure to be a sticking point.
