Suddenly finding way to increase investment in infrastructure, especially drawing in private money, is creating jobs for the backroomers among The Hill People. Legislation is being drafted now by Senators Rockefeller and Lautenberg to “establish the American Infrastructure Investment Fund and other activities to facilitate investments in infrastructure projects that significantly enhance the economic competitiveness of the United States by improving economic output, productivity, or competitive commercial advantage, and for other purposes.”
A synopsis of the bill shows that The American Infrastructure Investment Fund would be set up in the DOT with $5 billion in its vault for FY 2014 and FY 2015 and its role would be to “leverage Federal dollars to incentivize private investment in transportation projects of regional or national significance.”
It would work only with transportation projects. The Senators say the fund’s objectives “would be to invest in transportation projects of regional and national significance that provide measurable improvements to the economic competitiveness of the United States.”
This comes hot on the heels of a move to introduce a similar bill into the House by Maryland Democrat John Delaney (with help from Bill Clinton.)
