[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 12, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H513-H514]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1845
 REBUILDING AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, today I introduced four bills that I hope 
will add to the dialogue about the Federal Government's role in 
establishing public-private partnerships to leverage both public and 
private investment in America's infrastructure.
  Congress has recognized that our Nation simply does not have the 
resources to fix and rebuild all of our schools, our highways, mass 
transit facilities, environmental infrastructure, ports and airports 
and other infrastructure facilities. Public-private partnerships hold 
great potential in helping to fill this estimated $30 billion to $80 
billion in annual Federal investment, a shortfall in America's 
infrastructure. In the process we have the opportunity to create 
hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
  Congress started to address the idea of leveraging both public and 
private investments in infrastructure during the debate over the 
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. In addition 
to promoting discussion about innovative financing tools, the 
legislation granted to States the authority to establish something 
called a State infrastructure bank, or an SIB, in cooperation with the 
Department of Transportation.
  The Department of Transportation has now enabled ten States to 
establish the State infrastructure banks, which are intended to attract 
both public and private investment in transportation infrastructure. 
These entities, the State infrastructure banks, are funded using an 
allotment from the States' Federal transportation apportionments.
  The success of the newly created SIB's is limited by 
undercapitalization and an inability to leverage projects other than 
highway and mass transit infrastructure. The bills that I offered today 
will try to provide several solutions for addressing these weaknesses 
in a constructive and cost-effective manner.

[[Page H514]]

  Building on the effectiveness of the financial mechanisms created by 
these State infrastructure banks, I introduced four bills that will 
greatly expand the role of these kinds of entities and are related to 
public-private partnerships.
  The first bill is the State Infrastructure Bank Expansion Act, which 
works by studying ways to expand the use of, and to increase the 
capital, the money, for these State infrastructure banks.
  The second bill, the National Infrastructure Development Corporation 
Act, creates a Federal entity that functions much like these State 
creations.
  The third bill, the Public Benefit Bonds Innovative Financing Act, 
creates a new form of infrastructure bond that can be purchased by 
institutional investors.
  The last bill, the National Infrastructure Development Act, ties the 
two latter vehicles together as a comprehensive approach to leveraging 
public and private investments in infrastructure.
  The first bill, the State Infrastructure Bank Expansion Act, directs 
the Secretary of the Treasury, in cooperation with heads of other 
Federal departments, to study the way in which the State Infrastructure 
Banks can be expanded. The purpose of the study is to determine whether 
the State banks could be used to finance projects outside of the realm 
of transportation, so that we can include other areas that could be 
utilized by the State bank.
  I also reintroduced the National Infrastructure Development Act. This 
bill uses two financing mechanisms to attract private capital. First, 
the National Infrastructure Development Act creates a new category of a 
revenue-neutral bond called a public benefit bond. These are tax-exempt 
bonds which can be used by investors to attract capital for 
infrastructure development.
  The act would also create a Government-sponsored corporation that 
would have the same kinds of functions as a State Infrastructure Bank, 
but with expanded authority. The lending corporation would eventually 
become fully privatized once it has the capital it needs by way of 
returns on its infrastructure investments.
  What I want to do with these bills is to open up a bipartisan 
discussion about the ways in which we can create the most effective 
financing tools for rebuilding America's infrastructure. In the era of 
declining Federal budgets, what we need to do in an effort to try to 
create jobs, we need to create these jobs and at the same time to try 
to save the Federal Government money. We need to have private financing 
tools, private investment, in investing in America's infrastructure.
  Today there are many, many American corporations who are investing in 
infrastructure in Third World countries. What we want to do is to try 
to capture some of those investment funds and have them invested right 
here in the United States, where we can rebuild our schools, our roads, 
our bridges, our mass transit system, our rail system, our airports, 
our environmental facilities, and in the process, create hundreds of 
thousands of new jobs.
  I urge my colleagues to study the bills over the coming weeks and 
months. I hope they will be able to demonstrate their support for these 
kinds of public-private partnerships. I thank the Members for their 
consideration.

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