Trump's Budget Plan Calls for $200B in Infrastructure Repairs

President Trump’s federal budget is calling for a $3.6 trillion reduction in government spending over the next 10 years. Roughly $38 billion would be cuts from agriculture such as limits on crop insurance premiums.

The proposed budget is calling for $200 billion in taxpayer dollars to be put into infrastructure in the next decade, and a goal of creating a $1 trillion plan for a joint private and public infrastructure investment to help keep roads, bridges and waterways from crumbling.

Every 20 years or so, Lock and Dam 17 in New Boston, Ill. is dewatered to get some TLC from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

“The only thing stopping the water is the gates,” said Robert Castro of the USACE. “If they were ever to have a problem, they will rust away and there is nothing to stop the river.”

The USACE is trying to avoid problems on the locks, which were built in the 1930s. Funds are limited, and in 2017, the USACE voted for New Boston to be dewatered for maintenance.

The ag industry says funds used for major rehab are vital to waterways in the U.S., and those who use the waterways hope the 2018 fiscal year will help.