about the omnibus most likely. if they want to find discretionary funds in the defense budget, there are ways to get around congressional appropriati appropriations. yes, it s not easy, but it can be done. and certainly the defense budget is the largest single pot of money, if you re looking for a big pot of money. that s the place to look. but the idea here that the president could say, hey, you know, have the pentagon do it, they ve got a lot of money, right, have them do it. is pretty extraordinary for another reason, right? not only did the president originally say that mexico was going to pay for the wall, but he, you know, has already gone past a a potential congressional compromise here in which he would have gotten money the ordinary way. let me just briefly show you a picture that the president tweeted out saying it was already the construction of the
is it needed? well, certainly it s needed. america s one big pothole. i m back here in my hometown of peoria, and i can tell you this brutal winter has absolutely devastated and decimated the roads and bridges not only in central illinois but all across america. we need a transportation bill, but more than anything else, we need the money to pay for it. and the idea that the money is going to come from the states are local governments, they re broke, they don t have any money. and what i ve been promoting is the idea that the white house and the president promote an increase in the gas tax, increase the big pot of money that built the interstate system and built america, and then we can get on with filling potholes and bridges without the leadership from the president and the white house to raise the
know of roads that need to be fixed. there are 60,000 structurally deficient bridges in america today. 50, 60 year old transit systems all over america needs new cars and infrastructure. the problem for congress has always been, how do we pay for it? look, public/private partnerships, fine. we did a lot of public/private partnerships when i was at dot in obama s first administration. you need to do more. you need a big pot of money. you need to create other pots of money. in order for congress to really enact a strong, big infrastructure program, they have to increase the gas tax, have hasn t been raised in 23 years. they have to give states the opportunity to toll. they have to do an infrastructure bank. they have to do public/private partnerships. they have to create five or six pots of money that then can be used to fix up america.
what congress needs to do is put a boatload of money in there, whether it s $20 billion, $40 billion, $50 billion. after 9/11 we put $20 billion in there just for new york city. i think congress would be well-served to just put a big pot of money in there. and i would just say $20 billion off the top of my head. and that may not seem like a lot when we hear estimates of, you know, this or that hurricane is going to cost s$150 billion. i could caution american citizens to realize something. fema doesn t make people whole. fema doesn t come in and rebuild your home or rebuild your business. fema will come in and rebuild infrastructure, roads, highways, bridges, public schools and help with those costs. but they don t make people ho whole. that s not the job of fema. fema s job is to provide temporary assistance so that you can get your feet back on the ground as kind of a jumpstart. so when people hear $150 billion in damages expected from
cry. you just move forward. the vice president who visited texas and even helped clear some brush says help from the federal government is on the way. back with us from southwest houston msnbc correspondent garrett haake. i know you re in texas, but your heart really is near congress. at least you cover congress for us. lawmakers there returning from break next week with another immediate item on their to do list, now with all of this hurricane relief fund discussion. reporter: sources at the white house and in congress tell nbc that they expect the administration to ask for anywhere betwe$5.5 billion and billion. probably as soon as congress gets back. they ll put in a formal request for that sort of first big pot of money. a lot of it will go to fema just