House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will meet with President Donald Trump next Tuesday morning to discuss a potential plan to revamp U.S. infrastructure, CNBC confirmed. Pelosi, who first announced the meeting Tuesday afternoon, 4/23/19, said she is “very optimistic” about finding a bipartisan path to passing both an infrastructure proposal and a measure to cut drug prices.
Both Democrats and the White House say they want to overhaul U.S. roads, bridges and airports. But the parties still need to agree on how to finance the projects and how many environmental provisions to include in a plan.
“We’ll be meeting with the president next week when we come back to talk about what the prospect is for the size, in terms of resources and scope of what that might be,” Pelosi said during the Time 100 Summit on Tuesday.
In late March, Trump told Fox Business Network that infrastructure is “the easiest thing” he could accomplish with Democrats. The president and Pelosi briefly discussed the issue during a St. Patrick’s Day luncheon last month.
When she spoke Tuesday, Pelosi aimed to keep the focus on issues as she tries to tamp down talk of impeaching Trump ahead of the 2020 election. Calls to start impeachment proceedings have increased within the Democratic caucus following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation.
