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Rendell Pushes For National Infrastructure Bank

By R.G. Edmonson, The Journal of Commerce Online

Pennsylvania governor urges focus on improving economic security

Scott Brown's election victory in Massachusetts was a clear signal to Washington that Americans want politicians to focus their attention on job creation, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said Thursday.

Rendell, a founder of the Building America's Future coalition, told a small audience at the Center for National Policy that one sure-fire way to create jobs is through rehabilitating the nation's infrastructure. Creation of a national infrastructure bank was a major part of the solution, Rendell said.

Rebuilding infrastructure – from water systems and electrical grids to seaports – will cost the nation $4 trillion over 10 years, but "the deficit makes it harder to invest at the levels that are needed," he said.

Rendell said the infrastructure bank would concentrate federal funds and private sector investment, and focus them toward projects of the greatest national and regional significance.

Rendell and CNP President Stephen Flynn said that improving national infrastructure was the key to economic security, and economic security equates to national security.

Flynn questioned if Washington had the political will to undertake a large-scale and costly program. Even before the Jan. 19 election, infrastructure was pushed off the congressional agenda by everything from health care reform to reaction to the attempted terrorist attack on an airliner in Detroit on Christmas Day. The approaching mid-term elections give Congress even less time to take action.

Rendell said it will require the participation of corporate America to get congressional attention back on infrastructure.

"American politics is driven by the business community," Rendell said.

Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com.