Trump calls on Congress to produce a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

In his State of the Union address, President Trump said it's time to rebuild America's "crumbling infrastructure," and called on Congress to "produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment we need."

Trump said the United States was able to build the Empire State Building in just one year, and it's a "disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a permit approved for a simple road." The process must be streamlined down to one or two years, he said, so "we can reclaim our great building heritage." He promised to build "gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways" and it will be done with "American heart, American hands, and American grit."

Trump also said it's important to invest in workforce development and job training and to open more vocational schools. "We want every American to know the dignity of a hard day's work," he said. "We want every child to be safe in their home at night and we want every citizen to be proud of this land we love so much. We can lift our citizens from welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.