U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., recently spoke out about President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan, saying it’s a “golden moment” for it and that he’s ready to work with Trump to make it happen. Schumer said a possible infrastructure bill would bring much needed improvements and jobs to Long Island and that Trump said he was willing to work across the aisle.
“I won’t agree with the president-elect on some issues but on issues where we agree, I’m gonna work together. He called me. He said, ‘What about infrastructure?’ I said, ‘I wanna do it.’”
Schumer cited multiple ongoing projects on Long Island, like the construction of the second Long Island Rail Road track from Farmingdale to Ronkonkoma, the need to upgrade Suffolk County’s sewer system, and direct railroad access to Grand Central Station.
“Here on Long Island, we need more infrastructure. We need new big projects and we need to keep our existing projects going,” Schumer said.
While Trump has called for private tax credits to fund projects, Schumer says that would result in costly tolls. Schumer says he prefers federal funding for infrastructure.
A few days earlier, Schumer spoke out about Russia’s reported hacking during the presidential election, saying it’s “very important” to find out as much as possible about what happened.
Over the weekend, Schumer, a Democrat, and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona called for a bipartisan commission to investigate.
“To have other governments try to hack into our system to either change the election or do other bad things is a horrible thing and we gotta stop it,” Schumer said.
In the past, China has hacked into U.S. companies and stolen intellectual property. Schumer says he does not think the U.S. government has been tough enough in its response to cyberattacks. Schumer says this time the outcome might be different.
“Our commission will find out what’s wrong and propose some strong medicine.”
Schumer, who has been chosen to become the Senate minority leader, will soon begin receiving the highest level classified briefings.