Trump's Infrastructure Plan Sends Our Tax Dollars to Wall Street

"Trump's infrastructure plan unveiled today is as we expected: a sell off of our public assets to help Wall Street extract profit from our taxpayer-funded roads, bridges and water systems. The extent of the proposed sell-off--the Tennessee Valley Authority, Reagan and Dulles Airports, and the Washington Aqueduct, for starters--is breathtakingly brazen. He's effectively sending your tax dollars to Wall Street to manage, not accountable public officials.

"For water specifically, his scheme would all but ensure the most marginalized Americans--low income communities and people of color--have reduced access to affordable, clean water.

"The only good water infrastructure plan is one that fully funds our public water systems. This funding, at its lowest point in 40 years, is not delivered in this plan. Instead, it subsidizes the financial industry's takeover of our public water infrastructure with our own tax money. They'll be able to pick and choose communities that can match their investments for the biggest bang for the buck. Those are not communities like Flint, Michigan or Martin County, Kentucky. Rural American Indian and Alaskan Native populations have the lowest rates of access to indoor plumbing in the country, yet Trump's plan doesn't even mention water for tribal communities. To add insult to injury, his proposed budget eliminates grants to rural water and wastewater systems, cuts the main source of federal funding to states for wastewater and stormwater treatment, and would open up this shrinking pool of funding to private companies.

"This scheme is an affront to the human right to water, a disaster for vulnerable communities, and a boondoggle for taxpayers."