“President Trump either fundamentally misunderstands our national infrastructure challenge or is cynically using it to justify his continued assault on clean air and clean water protections. Delays to major infrastructure investments are overwhelmingly caused by a lack of funding, not by rules designed to ensure that construction projects do not harm the health and environment of the communities they serve - particularly minority and lower-income communities that are most vulnerable to the effects of pollution and climate change. The President’s rule change will only serve to cut communities out of the process of determining how best to move forward with infrastructure plans while again denying the reality of our global climate crisis.   “I stood in the White House last year with other Congressional leaders from both parties as we sought President Trump’s commitment to a bipartisan investment in infrastructure that he had previously supported. Instead of working with us to move forward with it, he demanded that Congress end its oversight of his Administration and, when he didn’t get what he wanted, walked out. Last month, House Democrats passed a major infrastructure investment package of our own, determined to move America forward. Instead of using our infrastructure challenges to further his anti-environment agenda, President Trump ought to work with Congress to secure the funding we need for the kind of comprehensive and effective infrastructure investment our country and our communities require.”