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State Of The Union Shows Lawmakers Still Far Apart On Infrastructure

Republicans and Democrats agree there needs to be more spending on infrastructure but disagree on where the money will come from.

By: Carter Woodiel

Posted at 11:48 AM, Jan 31, 2018

and last updated 2018-01-31 11:48:56-05

In President Donald Trump's State of the Union on Tuesday night, one of the bigger numbers he mentioned was $1.5 trillion.

"Tonight I'm calling on Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs," he said.

It has some lawmakers uneasy. It's not necessarily the size of the investment; Senate Democrats came up with their own trillion-dollar infrastructure plan about a week before the speech. It's more about where the money's going to come from, and that's facing questions from both sides of the aisle.

Trump said in his speech he wants to hit that $1.5 trillion mark by leveraging federal funds with state, local and private money. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said that's "a good start" but that there's "a lot of work to do." The Democrats' plan is largely dependent on federal money.

Details on Trump's plan are still tough to pin down. There are reports the administration will release a fleshed-out proposal in a couple of weeks.

Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN.