chao spoke at administration's infrastructure proposal at tuesday's white house briefing. this portion of the briefing is 15 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone. the of you probably saw announcement is morning. it is a direct result of the trump tax cuts and alabama-based company is raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and giving $1000 bonuses to over 2000 workers. for those of you keeping track, we have over 350 companies that have announced wage increases, bonuses, new hiring or have increased retirement benefits as a direct result of tax reform, which not a single

democrat has supported. this has affected more than 4 million american workers. the president is working to build an america that works for all americans. the tax cut is a big part of that, as is infrastructure. yesterday the president in unveiled the new economic outline. we are committed to quickly building a safe, reliable and modern infrastructure to meet the needs of the american people and to fuel economic growth. and to help make this possible we have a very special announcement today. in keeping with his campaign pledge, the president donates his salary on a quarterly basis to further work being done on important projects. most recently the president donated his third-quarter salary to help the department of health and human services combat the opioid epidemic. prior to that he donated to the department of education and the national park service. today the president will donate his fourth-quarter salary to the department of transportation to

support their programs to rebuild and modernize our crumbling infrastructure. secretary of transportation elaine chao is here to accept the check. i would like to bring her appear to say a few words, say couple words on infrastructure and how these funds will be used. trust he will stay on topic and that i will be back up to answer questions on the news of the day. elaine chao: thank you! we have to get the check here. thank you. thank you, sarah. i'm accompanied here, in case you were wondering, by two essentials of the u.s. department of transportation. i have with me derek on, undersecretary of policy and jim ray, the senior adviser to the secretary of infrastructure. they are here because of this gift. so, let me proceed. as many of you have heard

yesterday, 12 federal agencies happen working with the white house on the comprehensive that thecture proposal president announced yesterday. transportation is one component. the proposal also includes energy, drinking and wastewater, and balanced hospitals as well. the goal of the president's proposal is to simulate at least $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investment, which includes a minimum of $200 billion in direct federal funding and a key element is to empower decision-making at the state and the local level because state and local officials know best the infrastructure needs of their communities. many of you know that the principles are behind this. i wanted to reiterate some of the principles. the principles behind this

proposal are one, to use federal dollars as a seed money to encourage infrastructure investment by the state, localities and the private sector. two, provide what the infrastructure needs in rural communities. three, dreamliner project delivery. and four, invest in transformative projects that benefit everyone. we all are already applying these visible to the department of transportation's existing infrastructure grant program. including, for example, the in for grants -- the infragrants. are is why these gentlemen here because their offices will be among those at the department of transportation that will be taking the applications and also administering these grants. this quarter, as mentioned, the

president generously decided to donate his annual salary to the department's in for grant program. theirectly reflects president's proposal by providing dedicated discretionary funding to projects that address issues facing our nation's highways and bridges and ports. under the infra program, states and localities that secure some funding or financing of their own are given higher priority access to federal funds. in addition, infra also reserves at least 25% of its funding to be awarded to rural projects. so, infrastructure is the backbone of our economy and it is key to keeping our country competitive. the president's proposal will create new jobs, strengthen our economy and include a of life

for everyone. with that quick summary, i will be more than glad to answer any questions. yes, john. does is put too much of a burden on state is 13% ofy because it the overall. it could force people to pay more taxes, that sort of thing. what do you say to that? elaine chao: you know, federal money is not free. federal money comes from our communities. people, taxpayers and our communities. they take that money and send it to washington and we decide how to use it and send it back to the communities with a lot of strings attached on what they need to do. so what we are trying to do is to recognize the states and thatities and communities understand best weather infrastructure needs are. and to allow them to have much greater flexibility to decide

their own projects. in conjunction and in partnership with the federal government. reporter: one of the other facets of the president's plan does include addressing -- can you address why that was not included within the infrastructure plant? what does the administration plan to do about that important source of funding? elaine chao: the highway truck fund does need to be addressed because every year more money goes out of it than is received. this will be a huge problem in 2021. we in conjunction with the congress of got to address this issue. so, we are not in any disagreement about that and the issue is how and we look forward to consulting with congress on how to do that. in 2021. begins white house does not have a preliminary plan for

that? elaine chao: we do not want to do it unilaterally. the president's proposal consisted of principles. we are in consultation on a bipartisan basis with the hill to address the infrastructure needs for our country. secretary, thank you. -- we knowalk to us it is going on with roads, bridges, but when it comes to rural america, can you get into specifics about what jobs would be given where? elaine chao: i come from the state of kentucky. i come from a rural state. especially concerned about the needs of rural america and we recognize those needs are special. that is why in the president's proposal there is actually a theision which addresses unique needs of rural america.

the -- be separate from there is a separate title that is addressed for rural america and similarly there is a separate title addressed for technology. khan, itle, for derek is one of his portfolio areas, transformational technology, a utonomous vehicles. that is another part of the president's infrastructure proposal that we will be also discussing with the hill. reporter: madam secretary, as xou know the federal ta cents pert 18.4 gallon. the american trucking association recommended a 20

cent increase on the gas tax. what is your view? elaine chao: the president has not declared anything out of bounds, so everything is on the table. like many other issues being discussed is not ideal. the gas tax has had a very aggressive impact on the most vulnerable, those who depend on jobs, our hourly workers. these are tough decisions, which is why once again, we need to start the dialogue with the congress so we can address these issues on this very important point. reporter: did you verify your answer to john from the first question? are you saying the taxes will increase, or the polls may increase, or they won't?

elaine chao: that is a decision up to the states and local governments. it will depend, as that government mentioned -- as a gentleman mentioned, the gas taxes. we all want infrastructure but there is not enough money in the world to pay for all the infrastructure, which is why the president's infrastructure privatees the sector. private sector pension funds are an enormous source of capital for funding public infrastructure. there are states which disallow the private sector from investing in public infrastructure. we hope that those restrictions can be removed. and then for those states and localities, that want to work with the private sector, it is their decision as to whether they want to use private activity bonds, whether they want to use tolls, whatever.

what we are saying in this proposal is that we are looking for creative ways for financing. way.o, tolls is one we are not advocating for them. not endorsing them. it is really up to the local entities involved. reporter: as a quick follow up the waters and -- the expressway, when it was widened, there was no toll. in rural areas, to help people get where they wanted to go quicker, here in the washington dc area we have an abundance of tolls. while you are espousing that you want to help out rural america isn't that going to impact and hurt rural america? elaine chao: you are mixing up i think, several things. i am so sorry.

there is actually going to be a title, as i mentioned for rural america. that is separate from the rest of the titles in this proposal that we are talking about there will be a special section for rural america and as for whether other urban areas want to embark upon tolls are private activity that, or as in recycling, is up to them. we are giving them the flexibility to do so. so, they are getting much greater flexibility now to be able to look at the financing mechanisms and decide for themselves what they want thank you so much. i am sure we will be talking more. >> cai director mike pompeo were on capitol hill today stuck talk

about global threats facing the u.s.. that senate intelligence committee hearing is next on c-span. after that pentagon officials testify about election security issues. treasury secretary steven mnuchin will be on capitol hill wednesday to testify about the presidents 2019 budget request. follow live coverage at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span three. the senate will continue work on immigration legislation and take a procedural vote in the morning. topics they are debating this week are the deferred action for childhood arrivals program and border security. watch live senate coverage at 10:00 eastern on c-span two. officials say they expect russia to try to disrupt the 2018 midterec