Steny Hoyer: Democrats will pick up infrastructure after August recess

Democrats plan to tackle infrastructure after the August recess, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer told reporters on Wednesday.

“We still need to deal with infrastructure. We think that is a big part of our agenda,” he said.

Democrats announced back in April that infrastructure and lowering prescription drug costs would be two of their top priorities moving forward, but they haven’t brought any major legislation to the floor for a vote on either issue. Leadership said they wanted to deal with both on a bipartisan basis.

President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders appeared to be near a deal in April, as they announced an agreement to spend $2 trillion in a package to take care of crumbling roads and bridges.

However, the deal quickly fell apart as tensions between the two branches heated up over issues on the investigation front. Mr. Trump abruptly canceled a meeting with Democratic leaders in May after Mrs. Pelosi accused him of engaging in a cover-up.

Democrats argued Mr. Trump was looking for an excuse to cancel the meeting and back out of providing his plan to pay for the $2 trillion package.

Mr. Hoyer said how infrastructure gets addressed still relies on Mr. Trump’s willingness to play ball.

“How robustly we’ll be dealing with it depends on whether the president does what he told us he was going to do,” the congressman said.