INFRASTRUCTURE: Paul Bedard: Rural areas set to win big under Trump’s transportation plan for road, rail, and air.

After years of “discrimination” by Washington bureaucrats, rural communities are finally set to get a long-overdue share of federal money for roads, rail, and airports, a key promise of President Trump.

In a major funding shift championed by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, officials have revealed that rural areas that received 21% of $7-$8 billion in infrastructure funds in past years received up to 70% in an early campaign to improve transportation safety and capacity and will get half from now on.

“Rural America is not looking for a handout … They merely want not to be overlooked or discriminated against and to have their fair share in the distribution of federal resources,” Chao told us about her new program, Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success, or ROUTES.

In the less than two months after Chao first talked about it in St. Louis, ROUTES has been embraced by transportation officials around the country as a boost to help increase safety and move goods through small towns.

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