It is more likely that the federal government will approve the Mexico-Canada trade agreement this year than infrastructure funding, according to Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff.
“Do you think an infrastructure deal is possible this year?” asked Marie Bartiromo, moderator of the Milken Institute Global Conference panel.
Mulvaney groaned, before saying that Democrats and Republicans both want infrastructure, which doesn't mean they'll agree.
He said President Trump won’t sign an infrastructure deal that doesn’t include changes to environmental laws, because the administration contends those laws slow projects.
“It should take two years to build a road or bridge, not the 10 years it now takes,” Mulvaney said.
To build roads and bridges, you put money into a pipeline and 10 years later, roads and bridges come out the other end, he said.
“We want to change the length of that pipeline,” Mulvaney said.
He described the partisan roadblock like this: “You want to build bridges, I want to build bridges. But I want to change the environmental laws — and that is where things break down.”
Even as Mulvaney was sharing his doubts with the audience members in Beverly Hills, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was announcing that both parties had agreed to a dollar amount for the infrastructure bill of $2 trillion.
The president doesn’t believe it should take 10 years to build a road or a bridge — and wants to see the process shortened before he will sign off on any amount, Mulvaney said.
Bartiromo, a Fox Business News anchor, also questioned how any deal gets done amid House investigations of Trump.
“How do you strike an infrastructure deal on Tuesday, when you held an impeachment hearing on Monday?” she asked.
Mulvaney conceded it is human nature to not want to strike a deal with people lobbing accusations at you.
But in a connected panel, Alan Schwartz, executive chairman of Guggenheim Partners, said he doesn’t think impeachment would stall an infrastructure deal.
The Republican Congress was trying to impeach President Bill Clinton in 1998 and the two sides were still able to pass an infrastructure bill, Schwartz said.
If anything stalls an agreement, Schwartz said it would be the level of acrimony that exists in Washington today.
Bartiromo earlier had asked Mulvaney if the "poisonous environment" in Washington could prevent the trade agreement from moving forward, because Democrats would bury it because they disagree with Trump.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi does have the ability to bury it, but there is a lot of Democratic support for it, Mulvaney said.
“I hope conversations on infrastructure go well today,” Mulvaney said. “But I think there is a better chance of getting MCA passed.”
