Senate bill revives infrastructure
bank idea
November 14, 2013, 05:47 pm
By Keith Laing
Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are reviving a push to
create a national infrastructure funding bank in a new bill he unveiled on
Thursday.
Warner and Blunt's bill would
create a "infrastructure financing authority" that would receive $10
billion in initial funding, his office said.
The infrastructure funding would
be used as leverage to lure private sector investments that could reap as much
as $300 billion in new transportation projects, according to Warner's office.
The measure has been dubbed the
Building and Renewing Infrastructure for Development and Growth in Employment
(BRIDGE) Act.
Warner said in a statement
announcing the filing of the bill that it was just a start on the country's
backlog of road and transit projects.
“The BRIDGE Act is not a ‘silver
bullet’ to magically close America’s infrastructure gap, but this bipartisan
proposal creates smart new tools to help our states and localities unlock
billions of dollars in additional private investments at a time of very
favorable interest rates,” Warner said in a statement.
“The BRIDGE Act will not only put
Virginians and Americans back to work but also help to expand U.S. commerce and
trade, keeping American businesses competitive and creating even more jobs here
at home," the senior Virginia senator continued. "The BRIDGE Act demonstrates
our willingness to work together in a responsible, bipartisan way to get moving
on important investment priorities.”
The infrastructure funding bill
has been co-sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kirsten Gillibrand
(D-N.Y.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.),
Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).
Blunt said the measure could be
used to help close a gap in transportation funding that advocates have said is
as high as $20 billion.
"Infrastructure has long been
an integral part of our economy," Blunt said in a statement.
"Successful transportation systems connect people and communities, and
businesses large and small, and the jobs they create rely on a strong infrastructure
network to connect with their customers. This bipartisan legislation will
provide a new tool to help finance infrastructure projects, create jobs, and
ensure America’s
global competitiveness in the 21st century.”
An infrastructure bank proposal
was floated by now-Secretary of State
John Kerry and former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) in 2011, when
both were members of the upper chamber.
The Kerry-Hutchinson proposal
called for created a $50 billion infrastructure bank, but the legislation ran into
opposition from Republicans in the House who said they would prefer to let
states establish their own infrastructure banks.
Transportation advocates have said
they would prefer to create a national infrastructure bank because many states
have not chosen to do so on their own.
Mark Warner
Mark
R. Warner is a U.S. Senate
senator, a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank), and was the president for the Alfalfa Club.
Note: Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank).
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Dianne
Feinstein is a member of the Alfalfa
Club, a U.S. Senate senator, and
married to Richard C. Blum.
Richard
C. Blum is married to Senator Dianne
Feinstein, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and married to John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz
Kerry, and the secretary at the U.S.
Department of State for the Barack
Obama administration.
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