The White House this morning released further details on
the "President's Plan to Make America a Magnet for Jobs by Investing in
Infrastructure." Note that it proposes
$40 billion in funds to repair roads, bridges and transit systems, plus America
Fast Forward Bonds, which would build upon the model of the of the Build American Bonds program in order
to help leverage private sector investment.
The full release is provided below.
THE
WHITE HOUSE
Office
of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2013
The
President’s Plan to Make America a Magnet for Jobs by Investing in
Infrastructure
Investing in infrastructure not only makes our roads,
bridges, and ports safer and allows our businesses and workers to be as
competitive as they need to be in the global economy, it also creates thousands
of good American jobs that cannot be outsourced. Since the President took
office four years ago, America has begun the hard work of rebuilding our
infrastructure. But there’s more to do, and that’s why the President’s
plan ensures that the money we invest in infrastructure is spent wisely by
adopting a “fix-it-first” policy.
Repair and maintenance of our existing roads, bridges and
public transportation systems should take priority before we consider investing
in new facilities. This will ensure that our cities are safer and more
modern. But taxpayers shouldn’t have to shoulder the entire burden
either. We also know that America works best when we’re tapping the
resources and ingenuity of a vibrant private sector.
That’s why the President’s infrastructure plan calls for
a Rebuild America Partnership that will attract private capital to build the
infrastructure our businesses need most. By acting on the President’s
plan, together we can prove that there is no better place to do business and
create jobs than right here in the United States of America.
·
Investing in a “fix-it-first” policy: The President’s plan
will immediately invest $50 billion in our nation’s transportation
infrastructure, with $40 billion targeted to the most urgent upgrades and
focused on fixing our highways, bridges, transit systems, and airports most in
need of repair.
·
Attracting private investment through a “Rebuild America Partnership”:
The President’s plan will partner federal, state, and local governments with
businesses and private capital to provide America with the best transportation,
electric, water, and communications networks in the world.
·
Cutting red tape: The President’s plan will cut timelines
in half for infrastructure projects and create incentives for better
outcomes for communities and the environment through a historic modernization
of agency permitting and review regulations, procedures, and policies.
The
President’s Plan to Put Workers Back on the Job & Build the Infrastructure
we Need to Succeed in the Global Economy
Despite progress over the last four years, too many
construction workers remain out of work and too many of our nation’s
infrastructure needs remain unmet. The President’s plan would help put
workers back on the job in the near term, while also building the
infrastructure our businesses and workers need to succeed in the global
economy:
· Investing
in a “fix-it-first” policy. The national transportation system faces
an immense backlog of state-of-good-repair projects, a reality underscored by
the fact that there are nearly 70,000 “structurally deficient” bridges in the
country today. The President’s plan for $50 billion in frontloaded
transportation infrastructure investment would direct $40 billion towards
reducing the backlog of deferred maintenance on highways, bridges, transit
systems, and airports nationwide. For example, the President’s proposed
investments could bring almost 80 percent of structurally deficient bridges up
to date, getting Americans home faster and making the flow of commerce
speedier.
·
Attracting private investment through a “Rebuild America Partnership.”
The President’s plan will bring together an array of new and existing policies
all aimed at enhancing the role of private capital in U.S. infrastructure
investment as a vital additive to the traditional roles of federal, state, and
local governments:
o
Create a National Infrastructure Bank: The President continues to
call for the creation of a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank. The
Bank will have the ability to leverage private and public capital to support
infrastructure projects of national and regional significance. In
addition, the Bank will be able to invest through loans and loan guarantees in
a broad range of infrastructure projects, including transportation, energy, and
water, and will operate as an independent, wholly owned government entity
outside of political influence.
o
Enact America Fast Forward Bonds: Recovery Act funding for “Build
America Bonds” (BABs) helped to support more than $181 billion for new public
infrastructure. The program’s innovative design ensured that all
taxpayers—and not just the wealthiest—received the best bang-for-the-buck when
the federal government helped states, localities, and their private sector
partners invest in new infrastructure. The President’s new America Fast
Forward (AFF) bonds program would build upon the successful example of the BABs
program, broadening it to include similar programs like the qualified private
activity bonds program and relaxing certain limitations in the way the combined
program could be used. AFF bonds would attract new sources of capital for
infrastructure investment—including from public pension funds and foreign
investors that do not receive a tax benefit from traditional tax-exempt debt.
o
Implement the newly expanded TIFIA program: The TIFIA
program—which provides direct loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit to
regionally or nationally significant transportation projects—received an
eight-fold increase in funding in the recent surface transportation
reauthorization. The program, which is especially important to mayors and
local leaders, highlights the important role that infrastructure financing can
play in catalyzing private investment, and its expansion was a significant step
towards more innovative infrastructure financing.
·
Cutting red tape. The Administration’s infrastructure permitting
initiative has shown that we can cut federal review and permitting timelines
for construction projects such as highway, bridges, railways, ports, waterways,
pipelines, and renewable energy by several months to several years. This
modernization effort will achieve time savings of 50 percent in the federal
permitting and review process, while ensuring projects create better outcomes
for communities and the environment. The effort will bring federal
permitting and review procedures into the 21st century through
expanded use of integrated planning, landscape and watershed-level mitigation,
information technology, and publication of public timelines for permitting and
review decisions to improve transparency and predictability.
Building on the Progress We’ve Made
· The
Recovery Act was the most significant transportation public works program since
the New Deal, providing $48 billion in Recovery Act dollars to more than 15,000
projects across the country. Between Recovery Act and core
infrastructure funds, American workers have improved over 350,000 miles of U.S.
roads and repaired or replaced over 20,000 bridges since the President took
office. Over the last four years, the Department of Transportation has
built or improved more than 6,000 miles of rail, 40 rail stations, and
purchased 260 passenger rail cars and 105 locomotives. In addition, the
Obama Administration has made an unprecedented commitment to strengthen public
transportation across the United States, investing in more than 350 miles of
new rail and bus rapid transit, and helping to revitalize the American
manufacturing industry by investing in 45,621 buses and 5,545 rail cars.