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President Donald Trump has scrapped plans to commission a council of corporate executives focused on improving U.S. infrastructure, a White House official confirmed Thursday, a move that could dent the administration’s efforts to improve broadband access nationwide.
The decision comes after the collapse of two other White House advisory boards — one on the economy, another on manufacturing — as business leaders continue to rebel over Trump’s controversial comments about the violence in Charlottesville, Va., last week.
Trump initially chartered his so-called “advisory council on infrastructure” in an executive order issued in July. The 15-member panel was supposed to be comprised of executives from a number of industries, including communications and technology — but the president never announced its roster, and the group never actually met.
Presumably, though, the council would have had representatives from tech or telecom giants, given Trump’s previous, repeated pledges to improve broadband access in the country’s hardest-to-reach rural areas.
Beyond that, the White House has not provided any specifics as to how Trump would accomplish his aim, other than to stress that broadband would be a major component of a forthcoming infrastructure package — still not yet in the hands of Congress — that could be valued at $1 trillion.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
