Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) revealed to Breitbart News Saturday in an exclusive interview that President Donald Trump supports his infrastructure legislation.
Congressman Mike Kelly, along with Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), and Ted Budd (R-NC) on Thursday introduced, H.R. 6104, the Generating American Income and Infrastructure Act (GAIN) Act, which would require the Department of Agriculture to sell its distressed assets and use the proceeds to develop infrastructure in communities below the poverty line. The GAIN Act would also use half of its profits to help pay down the national deficit. Members from the House Freedom Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Republican Study Committee have endorsed this innovative infrastructure bill.
“We need infrastructure investment in our state. This bill gets us there with bipartisan support.” Budd said.
Rep. Clay said in a statement on Thursday:
This innovative, bipartisan bill offers a creative way to help our poorest neighborhoods gain employment and critical investments in long-delayed infrastructure projects. It is also fiscally responsible by taking distressed USDA assets and putting them to work to close the deep disparities that have deprived many urban areas of the vital infrastructure dollars needed to attract new jobs, new businesses and future growth.
“This is not coming out of your pocket, we’re going to do the right thing for you, we’re going to do the right thing for our cities,” Rep. Kelly told Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle.
The Pennsylvania congressman then revealed that he spoke with President Donald Trump about his legislation and said that the president backed the legislation.
“You know what? Great idea, great idea. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that in my business life and you do get ahead,” Trump reportedly said during a meeting between him and Rep. Kelly.
“He said ‘get it to me, and I’ll sign it,’” Kelly added.
Congressman Kelly suggested that this infrastructure package could pass through Congress before the 2018 midterms.
Kelly explained, “I’m so tired of people saying that you cannot get anything done because it’s an election year. What year is it not an election year? I think if you act boldly and you act strongly, and you act in a unified way, the American people will look for wins and not look for people forfeiting things.”
“It’s a win-win-win,” Kelly added.
Sam Geduldig and Mike Williams of United By Interest, a bipartisan lobbying firm, explained to Breitbart News Saturday why they support the GAIN Act.
Wiliams said, “We wanted to make sure that we presented this bill in its construction as having enough for both parties. We have infrastructure investments going into low-income areas that is something that the Democratic caucus has in fact supported. The CBC’s [Congressional Black Caucus] plan has been supportive of that, the Senate Democrats have been supportive of that. There is something there for both sides. There is strong support for the bill, and we’re hoping to build that out over the next months and see whether we can expand.”
“I’m trying to get some conservatives, selling distressed assets, paying down the deficit and not using the regressive gas tax to raise money for infrastructure,” are all very persuasive points for conservatives, Geduldig said.
Williams said that his legislation, coupled with its bipartisan support, could pass before the 2018 midterm elections.
“It is fully digestible, we’re not talking about a full massive $1 trillion infrastructure play right here,” Williams said. “We’re talking about doing a demonstration project to show proof of concept of reusing the debt the government has on its balance sheet for a better purpose.”
“There’s no reason why we couldn’t expand that next year into a much bigger play into trillions of dollars in potential resources that could come to play,” the United By Interest lobbyist added.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern.
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