An infusion of federal money on infrastructure could help finish construction on Interstate 35W and pay for runway improvements at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House Monday.
"It's critical that the nation's infrastructure be rebuilt and we do innovative things,” Price told NBC 5 on her way into the White House. “It's a golden opportunity for our region."
In the meeting in the White House dining room, Price sat near Ivanka Trump and across the room from the president as he spoke to invited officials from around the country."
"To me this is a very, very sexy subject,” Trump said. “I find it sexy because I was always a builder. I knew how to build on time, on budget and that's what we want here."
The president proposes spending $200 billion in federal money on infrastructure.
His plan requires cities and states to provide up to 80 percent of the funding, meaning the total investment would be $1.5 trillion.
Price said the funding formula isn’t much different than it has been for past projects.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"Well it obviously matters,” she said. “We'd like to have some direct funding. But certainly this will give us the ability to leverage our dollars and potentially private dollars.”
Price was the only official from Texas invited to the event and her second time at the White House in as many months.
The mayor met Trump last month during the United States Conference of Mayors meeting.
“We get along,” she said of her relationship with the president. “He understands Fort Worth is the largest city in the state that is conservatively led and it's also the largest city in the nation that is led by a woman. It's nice to have the other side of the coin for the perspective."
