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Trump Abandons Plans for Infrastructure Advisory Council

President Donald Trump will not move forward with a plan to form an advisory council on infrastructure, a White House official said Thursday.
Image: Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump gives a statement on the infrastructure discussion in the lobby at Trump Tower on August 15, 2017 in New York.Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images

President Donald Trump will not move forward with a plan to form an advisory council on infrastructure, a White House official said Thursday.

The announcement comes just one day after his Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum ended following a spate of CEO resignations in the wake of Trump's response to a white nationalist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, that occurred last Saturday.

"The President has announced the end of the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum. In addition, the President's Advisory Council on Infrastructure, which was still being formed, will not move forward," a White House official said Thursday.

Infrastructure was one of the major priorities the White House hoped Congress would tackle after the August break. On Tuesday, Trump announced an executive order aimed at expediting the government's environmental review process for major infrastructure projects. The combative press conference, however, was overshadowed by his controversial comments about the violence in Charlottesville.

Trump’s budget proposes $200 billion in federal funds be devoted to infrastructure over the next 10 years, with additional incentives to encourage $800 billion in investment from the private sector.