The White House will turn to a familiar spokeswoman to help drum up enthusiasm for its plan to overhaul how the nation funds infrastructure needs: President Donald Trump's eldest daughter.
Ivanka Trump , a White House adviser, will appear in Iowa Monday with Gov. Kim Reynolds and discuss workforce training in a school district near Des Moines . In a briefing call with reporters on Friday, Ms. Trump said she would be playing the same role she did last fall, when she traveled the country to promote a Republican tax-cut bill that was a priority for the White House .
The Trump administration included worker-training provisions in the infrastructure proposal it sent to Congress last month, and it has embraced apprenticeship programs as a way to prepare a new generation of workers for jobs in manufacturing and construction.
"The workforce development pillar within the infrastructure proposal aims to equip the American worker with the skills needed to succeed in the modern economy," Ms. Trump said.
The fate of the administration's infrastructure package is an open question, however. Republican leaders in the House and Senate said they would consider the proposals piecemeal rather than pursue a single comprehensive bill, as they did with the tax overhaul.
The White House has proposed spending $200 billion over 10 years to fund public works like roads, bridges and dams. Some of those funds would be doled out as grants for rural areas. Half of the funds would be used as incentives to encourage states and cities to raise their own funds -- through taxes or tolls, and potentially in collaboration with private investors -- to pay at least 80% of the cost of new building projects.
The administration says its plan would lead to more than $1 trillion in infrastructure spending over a decade. Mr. Trump himself has thrown out even higher numbers, once saying the plan would yield $1.8 trillion in spending. But some state and local officials are skeptical of the plan, arguing it would ask municipalities to take on fiscal burdens they can't bear.
A senior administration official said it was "too early to tell" how the package would fare in Congress .
"We've started our big push now," the official said, pointing to a Senate Commerce Committee hearing this past week on the package that was attended by five members of the cabinet, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross .
The biggest infrastructure fight on the Hill so far this spring isn't about the administration's proposal, however.
Republicans from the Northeast are trying to convince Mr. Trump to drop his objection to the inclusion of $900 million in federal funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Elected officials of both parties say the tunnel is critical to ensuring that train service along the northeast corridor isn't interrupted should the existing tunnels fail.
Mr. Trump has threatened to veto an omnibus spending bill if the funding is included, House Speaker Paul Ryan has told his caucus.
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