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Schumer To Push Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bill

Fixing the country’s crumbling infrastructure has long been a political talking point in Washington, D.C.

But for U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who’ll enter the new year as the Senate’s Minority Leader, infrastructure remains a top priority and could actually find traction with the incoming administration.

Last week, Schumer, D-N.Y., spoke to reporters via conference call about a proposed trillion-dollar infrastructure deal that could be accomplished in the first 100 days of President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration.

Schumer said the bill, which directly invests real federal dollars in building projects, such as roads, bridges, transit systems, water-and-sewer systems and the electrical grid, would help reduce traffic and congestion, improve public health, increase safety, boost economic growth and help educate the next generation of Americans.

It would also make Upstate New York more competitive for new and existing businesses, he said.

“It’s plain to see, New York’s infrastructure is falling apart,” Schumer said. “That’s why we need to pave the way for real infrastructure funding that revives our economy, ensures public safety and takes the local taxpayers off the hook for billions of dollars in past neglect. Though the devil is in the details, it is clear that New York is ready, willing and able to make these repairs, we just need the funding to get the job done.”

Schumer also said Trump’s interest in infrastructure might make for a good bipartisan opportunity.

“President-Elect Trump has talked about this need over and over again … and I’ve talked to him and I know he agrees we need to get this to work and put people to work,” Schumer said.

To that end, Schumer said he will work in good faith in the next Congress to craft a major infrastructure bill with direct investment early next year.

According to an American Society of Civil Engineers report, more than half of New York’s 17,000 bridges are over 75 years old and New York’s roadways are in increasingly worse condition, costing drivers hundreds of dollars a year in extra operating costs.

ASCE estimates that poor road and bridge conditions in New York cost the average family with two cars more than $1,000 a year in Albany, more than $800 a year in Rochester, and more than $900 a year in Syracuse.

Schumer said Upstate New York’s transit systems require at least $1 billion in capital over the next five years just to maintain a state of good repair, and tens of billions more are needed for downstate transit and rail systems.

In addition, New York’s water and sewer systems are also starving for federal investment, he said.

“Recent studies showed that our combined water and sewer needs are in the neighborhood of $30 billion and 30 percent of New York’s 22,000 miles of underground sewers are more than 60 years old,” Schumer said.

In addition to these areas, investment is also needed in other types of infrastructure like broadband, dredging, flood mitigation, environmental clean-up and redevelopment and school construction.

According to New York State, as of December 2014, there were approximately 2,482,338 households across Upstate New York that did not have access to 100 Mbps broadband service, a problem that limits growth and economic development in many regions of the state. Moreover, 221,090 households do not have access to 25 Mbps broadband service.

“(These things) have nothing to do with politics or party … it’s something that New York State and all of America desperately need,” Schumer said. “Now is the time to turn things around.”

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