President Obama’s $447 billion plan to spur job creation – in part through increased investment in infrastructure – failed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Senate this month, likely killing its chances of advancing as a singular piece of legislation. But Senate Democrats are already pledging to give the proposal new life by attempting to advance individual components of the plan as stand-alone bills.
The White House plan – introduced in the Senate as the “American Jobs Act” (S. 1660) – included $10 billion to fund a national infrastructure bank that would invest in a wide range of regionally and nationally significant infrastructure, including drinking water projects. The infrastructure bank concept has previously attracted bipartisan support, so it may be a candidate to subsequently go before the Senate as a stand-alone bill. But House Republicans recently held it up as an example of excessive bureaucracy.
Speaking at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on the topic this month, Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said that a new national infrastructure bank would not be able to create jobs quickly, despite requiring approximately $270 million in start-up costs over the course of a year. Mica also questioned the wisdom of “creating another federally backed agency designed to pick project winners and losers,” and said flatly that “a national infrastructure bank is dead on arrival in Congress.” Instead, he suggested that Congress should consider offering assistance to existing state-based infrastructure banks.