Coalition Urges Obama To Create National Infrastructure Bank

More to come about a national infrastructure bank.

ULI Article:
Coalition Urges Obama To Create National Infrastructure Bank

This post was written for The Ground Floor by Robert Krueger, communications associate at the Urban Land Institute.



This week, Building America’s Future, a coalition of public officials and private organizations – including ULI – hosted a news conference on Capitol Hill to voice support for greater investment in infrastructure. The group, which included ULI Executive Vice President Maureen McAvey, urged President Obama and members of Congress to make the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) a top domestic priority for 2010.



“We are in desperate need of movement,” said Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, co-chairman of Building America’s Future. “Infrastructure is still the nation’s best job creator. A National Infrastructure Bank would bring the best ideas of the public sector along with the best ideas of the private sector together to produce jobs and rebuild America’s infrastructure.”



Rendell expressed the need for both presidential leadership and Congressional cooperation in creating a new system for long-term funding that is “based on merit.” He noted that the current system is inadequate since it results in the incompatibility of work between various states.



The concept of a National Infrastructure Bank is supported by ULI. Building America’s Future suggests a National Infrastructure Bank that would go beyond allocating funds for national, regional and local transportation projects. In addition, it would synchronize projects between states and improve investment by:



• Creating a system of project selection based on what is most needed and feasible • Providing incentives for multi-state transportation projects
• Ensuring that sufficient federal funding will be available for these projects
• Creating a system that maximizes public sector spending by integrating private sector investment.



“This is common sense,” said Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). “If we are to grow in the 21st century, we need to maintain and expand the existing infrastructure.”



Though there is much support for creation of this type of system, there is concern over funding and how a National Infrastructure Bank would work into the current system. In a statement issued by Building America’s Future, McAvey stressed the need for dropping what has not worked and adopting systems that have proven effective. “Europe, China and Japan have all used infrastructure banks to fund major, cross-border projects of long lasting significance,” she said. “A financing tool like the National Infrastructure Bank should operate as a bank, independently underwriting loans to important projects. This would bring billions of new money, private and public, to invest in sorely needed modernization and new construction.”



The coalition also includes Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE). In addition to ULI, it includes representatives from the Brookings Institution, American Public Transportation Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, Center for National Policy, and the United Steelworkers.

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