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WASHINGTON — President Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget request is likely to deny funding for U.S. Department of Transportation grants awarded to various state agencies since 2009 for infrastructure projects, the Senate’s top transportation funding leader said March 8.

Several transportation trade groups have asked Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to continue Diesel Emissions Reduction Act funding in EPA’s fiscal-year 2018 budget.

The U.S. government probably won’t begin “real” negotiations to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement until later this year, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.

The business community will tell Senate funding leaders on March 8 to raise taxes on fuel as a way to fund big-ticket infrastructure projects. Sarah Kline of the Bipartisan Policy Center explains how P3s can work even in rural communities. Here's the week ahead for trucking on Capitol Hill.

Increasing vehicle capacity to alleviate congestion and improve safety along Interstate 10 between Phoenix and the ports in the Los Angeles area is among the infrastructure projects for which Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) would welcome funding assistance from the federal government.

A congressionally mandated study on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service restart rule showed that it “did not explicitly identify a net benefit on driver operations, safety, fatigue and health,” the Department of Transportation Inspector General said March 2.

The United States is seeking more “reciprocal” trade with other countries in a bid to boost growth, reduce the trade deficit and keep American production capacity out of foreign hands, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said.

Big-ticket infrastructure projects around the country need a boost from the federal government, more than 30 mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., last week told congressional leaders and Trump administration officials.

An influential conservative group backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch is questioning a plan to spend $1 trillion on the nation’s infrastructure and warning that one of President Trump’s signature policy initiatives could become a “spending boondoggle.”