In a country awash in divisiveness, it is increasingly important to identify when policy conversations are trending towards being more thoughtful and less visceral. One glimmer of progress can be found in the coverage of the Administration’s release of a final rule intended to modernize the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The Magic of TIFIA
As Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the US economy, providing credit assistance to governments and enterprise has been a priority for policymakers. Yet one federal program has been surprisingly overlooked, despite its ability to generate over $300 billion in infrastructure debt relief from just $20 billion in federal funding and its potential to spur massive new infrastructure investment.
The program is the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)’s lending program TIFIA, which allows infrastructure developers to borrow up to one-third of project costs at Treasury rates.
Paul Krugman Misses the Mark on Infrastructure
Healthy conflict and debate are integral to our democratic process; our nation’s philosophic diversity is one of its many strengths. And history has proven that the best policies result from consensus flowing out of conflict. However, our democracy rests not just on debate, but on informed debate. So let’s have a robust debate on the best way to improve our nation’s infrastructure, but let’s also have one that’s informed. - DJ Gribbin
3 Reasons to Think Twice About an Infrastructure Bill
“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In policy, too, every action creates a reaction, albeit rarely equal or opposite. In fact, the challenge of policy is that reactions, while inevitable, are difficult to predict. ”
Why is Federal Infrastructure Policy So Difficult?
“Our path to a new federal infrastructure policy is blocked by irrational expectations around limited funding, a failure to appreciate the diversity of needs, and misaligned incentives.”