Dave Loebsack
Iowa’s lone Democratic congressman says he has a lot of concerns about President Donald Trump’s ideas for infrastructure improvements.
The president has said he wants to rely more heavily on cities, states, and private investment to pay for infrastructure work. Second District Congressman Dave Loebsack says that could short change rural parts of the country.
“The problem is that the incentives that are going to be provided are not necessarily going to lead to the kinds of development of projects that we need in rural America, because these companies are not going to find it in their bottom line interest to do the kind of work that we need in Iowa,” Loebsack says.
Loebsack says rural infrastructure needs might have a tough time attracting private funding.
“There are a heck of a lot of rural Republican representatives who have exactly the same concerns I have about making sure that the funding, as it is, is going to provide the kind of investments that we need to have in rural America,” Loebsack says.
President Trump is talking about a number of broad proposals in what the White House is calling “Infrastructure Week.” Loebsack made his comments on The Iowa Public Radio program River to River.