Bullock for President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Governor Bullock Rolls Out Comprehensive Infrastructure Plan

Helena, MT – Montana Governor Steve Bullock today announced his comprehensive plan to modernize our infrastructure and create jobs. The plan increases highway and transit funding, ensures clean drinking water for every American, creates new grants to reduce greenhouse emissions, and connects every rural school, library, and healthcare provider to broadband internet. 

Investments in infrastructure are vital for a dynamic economy and a high quality of life for all Americans. That’s why Governor Bullock’s plan invests $975 billion in our infrastructure to guarantee that the United States continues to lead the global economy. The investment would be fully funded by Governor Bullock’s innovative plan to reform the corporate tax rate. 

“When we invest in our infrastructure, we can create jobs and revitalize communities across the country,” said Montana Governor Steve Bullock. “As Governor, I’ve done the hard work to pass an infrastructure bill. And as President, I’ll pass a bold new plan that invests in our nation’s infrastructure to create jobs, fight climate change, and spur economic growth and opportunity for Americans in every community.”

As Governor, Bullock passed a major infrastructure plan — the first in the state in a decade — working with a majority-Republican legislature to make historic investments in his state’s roads, bridges, and schools. As the only sitting Governor in the race, Steve knows how to get things done.

Read the full plan here. 

Highlights from the proposal: 

Overview of Shovel-Ready Infrastructure Investments

• $350 billion in highway/transit funding.
• $61 billion to connect every rural school, library, and healthcare provider to broadband internet.
• $14 billion to assist rural telecom providers with “rip and replace” initiatives that remove non-secure, Chinese-made telecommunications infrastructure equipment and replace them with more secure equipment.
• $20 billion to clear the maintenance backlog at our National Parks and other Department of Interior properties.
• $150 billion over five years to fund the State Revolving Fund for clean drinking water. With more than 63 million Americans exposed to unsafe water in the last decade, it’s time to give local water systems some help.
• $380 billion in new grants to combat climate change — helping to reduce emissions in every practical way: replacing leaking pipelines, making buildings more efficient, using concrete that sequesters carbon, modernizing the electric grid, and investing in mitigation efforts like seawall repair and flood control.

Transportation
 
Short-term Priorities

• Create new initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in fleet transportation. With a $75 billion investment, Steve will lower emissions by creating a series of tax credits that accelerate depreciation of newly-purchased trucks and locomotives that are low- or zero-emission vehicles. 
• Provide grants to transit agencies to help them rapidly convert their fleets to low- and zero-emission power sources. This will include new grants to school systems to help them afford low- and zero-emissions school buses.
• Incentivize the creation of bike paths to decrease congestion, improve public health, and create tourist opportunities.   
• Allow $32 billion in existing, unused railroad rehabilitation and improvement authority to be applied to the procurement of CNG, fuel-cell or other low- and zero-emissions locomotives.
• Provide $75 billion to “break the bottlenecks.” These funds will be used to partner with America’s Governors to create a “Top 100” list of America’s most urgent transportation bottlenecks that are restricting economic growth—and get to work on these projects immediately.  
  • As a Governor, Steve knows that on-the-ground knowledge of local needs can often be better at driving solutions and  economic growth than a Washington-centered program.  
  • These bottlenecks on farm-to-market roads, locks & dams, rail/truck intermodal facilities, air cargo complexes, and elsewhere restrict our nation’s economic growth.  
  • Steve will convene the nations’ Governors within the first 100 days of his term to create this list.
• $200 billion for a new Community Oriented Transportation and Growth Initiative. This Race-to-the-Top style program would be based on benefit-cost calculations and demonstrated progress toward a carbon-neutral transportation system. 
  • Its intent would be to spur local referenda and self-funding initiatives built around a local/regional vision that includes economic development, housing, environment, and community-based goals. 
  • For the first time, it would put transit, car-sharing, electrification, bikes, and other innovative transportation solutions on an equal footing with highways. 
  • This account would have a significant rural set-aside.
• As with all federal investments in infrastructure, these investments will be governed by Davis-Bacon provisions and subject to Project Labor Agreements to ensure that the men and women who are building American infrastructure are treated fairly and provided an honest wage for this work.

Long-term Priorities

• Convene a summit of state & local leaders to implement best innovation practices for infrastructure. As Governor, Steve recognizes that innovation and progress most often comes from the state and local level, not just the federal government. As President, he will encourage and support that dynamic. 
  • Encourage inter-state collaborative efforts, such as when a group of states bands together to tackle climate change and the health impacts of auto emissions through improved fuel efficiency standards.  
  • Rebuild the consensus with the states and the auto industry for long-term fuel efficiency standards, with the consistency and predictability that businesses need to plan and engineer model changes years in advance. 
  • Create a States Advisory Group in the White House comprised of state and local leaders to develop plans for innovative technology infrastructure.

 Other Critical Infrastructure

• Fully fund the State Revolving Fund for clean drinking water. With more than 63 million Americans exposed to unsafe water in the last decade, it’s time to give local water systems some much-needed help. 
• Extend the life of the Indian Water Settlement Fund to ensure that the federal government meets its treaty responsibilities to support clean water in Indian Country.
• Connect all of rural America to broadband internet within 3 years.
• Help small telecommunications networks to eliminate unsecure Chinese-made equipment and replace it with more secure technology.
• Leverage advanced analytics and data to prioritize projects and make more efficient infrastructure investments.
  • Better data collection can enable improved climate models for coastal resiliency planning, allow better community planning in areas impacted by wildfires, and ensure our investments in infrastructure are informed by an analysis of system conditions and traffic patterns locally, regionally, and nationally.
• For too long, Washington has ignored the growing maintenance needs in our National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and other federal lands. Today, the maintenance backlog on federal lands is $20 billion. Steve will end the backlog, generating jobs in rural America. 

Combating Climate Change

• Make existing buildings more efficient while ensuring new construction is done to the highest energy efficiency standards, using concrete that sequesters carbon and accelerating the deployment of clean energy. 
• Put more Americans to work retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient. This will create good-paying jobs for our laborers and union workers while significantly decreasing carbon pollution.
• Partner with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), states, and the private sector to modernize our regional electric grids to reduce wasted energy, allow more renewable energy onto the systems, create jobs, modernize delivery, and spur economic growth across the country. Our nation’s electric grid is the oldest energy technology and equipment still in operation. We need to update it to ensure it can meet Americans’ needs.
• Establish a $50 billion grant program to fund high-priority mitigation efforts like fire recovery, levee and dam repair, seawall repair, and flood plain preservation.

Funding Sources

• Restore the corporate tax rate back to 31% — still four points below where it was in 2016 before Trump’s disastrous tax giveaways.
• Implementing the so-called “Buffett Rule” by taxing carried interest earned by investment fund managers as ordinary income.