National News

Trump Critics Seize on Developer Ties to Infrastructure Plan. “President Donald Trump’s critics are already lining up to undercut his infrastructure proposal — the purported bipartisan centerpiece of Tuesday’s State of the Union speech — as a giveaway to his well-connected friends and a rollback of popular environmental protections. Even before the president formally calls for a deal to help rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure, a watchdog nonprofit stocked with former Democratic aides is ramping up a campaign to discredit his plan as ‘a blueprint for cronyism.’ The group Democracy Forward will release a report Tuesday that alleges potential conflicts of interest on Trump’s infrastructure advisory council, which was disbanded last summer. The board was led by two of Trump’s longtime New York developer allies, Richard LeFrak and Steven Roth, who were tapped to help shape his plan to shore up roads and bridges by leveraging public money with private investors’ involvement. Among the potential minefields the group singles out are lobbying by LeFrak's company against flood risk regulations that the Trump administration axed last year and the prospect that Roth's company would benefit from a public-private partnership in the works to build a new Penn Station in New York City.” [Politico, 1/30/18 (=)]

Center for Biological Diversity: Trump Infrastructure Proposal Would Bury Hundreds of Endangered Species. “A leaked copy of President Donald Trump’s infrastructure proposal, which is expected to be announced at his State of the Union address, includes dozens of attacks on environmental safeguards, including six provisions that would gut critical provisions of the Endangered Species Act.  Trump’s proposal would deny imperiled plants and animals lifesaving protections by delaying their listing as endangered species, slowing safeguards for their critical habitat and decreasing citizen participation. The proposal would likely cause the extinction of hundreds of imperiled species. ‘Trump’s proposal would dig a graveyard for our most imperiled wildlife and bury America’s natural heritage,’ said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. ‘We can and should restore our infrastructure without this reckless scheme to let corporate polluters annihilate endangered animals and contaminate our air and water.’” [BiologicalDiversity.org, 1/29/18 (+)]

Trump Infrastructure Plan Details Epected in Mid-February: Source. “U.S. President Donald Trump will outline his much-anticipated infrastructure plan in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, but details will not be unveiled until mid-February, an administration official briefed on the plan said on Monday.” [Reuters, 1/29/18 (=)]