Senate Committee Weighs National Infrastructure Bank Concept

The U.S. Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007, S 1926.  Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) voiced strong support for the bill that would establish an independent body, essential a national infrastructure bank, which would provide supplemental funding for selected capacity building infrastructure projects of substantial regional and national significance. 

The bank would develop the financing package with backing from the U.S. government.  As proposed, the bank would issue bonds—the ceiling being $60 billion—to provide loan guarantees, long-term tax-credit bonds, and other financial packages. 

Witnesses included the Honorable Felix Rohatyn, Trustee for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (and former Ambassador to France) and John Mongan, President of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), as well as others.

The proposed legislation makes heavy reference to the ASCE's report card for America’s Infrastructure, which suggests the nation’s infrastructure warrants an overall grade of D.

Contact John Sullivan.

Agency Sets New Ozone Standard

Local governments and industries are preparing to spend billions over the next decade to control emissions from power plants and transportation systems, all with the goal of compliance with new national air pollution standards for ground-level ozone that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Wednesday.

The new ozone standard is 75 parts per billion (ppb), replacing the current standard of 84 ppb. The health standard establishes the amount of ground-level ozone that an average person can breathe over eight hours without incurring health risk.  

In announcing EPA's revision to the 1997 health standard, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said that the measure would establish "the most stringent eight-hour standard ever for ozone."  The result would be hundreds of additional lives saved and thousands fewer hospitalizations due to respiratory or cardiovascular distress, he said.

Currently, 345 counties do not meet the 75 ppb standard, according to the EPA. Over the next two years, the agency will determine which areas will continue to violate the new standard after 2010. States will then have three years to develop plans to come into compliance, a process that could take 20 years for the most severe violators.

State measures to meet the tougher standard could include further tightening regulations on emissions from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources, or beefing up tailpipe emissions programs that seek to take older, heavily polluting cars and trucks off the road.

According to EPA, implementing the new standard over the next two decades could cost upward of $175 billion, but many say the health benefits of achieving cleaner air would likely exceed that amount.
The agency was under a court order to set the ozone standards by yesterday

Contact Andy O'Hare.

President Bush has nominated David R. Hill to replace Roger Martella as General Counsel.  

Hill was nominated late last year for the position of Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR).  The OAR nomination was withdrawn, however, to move forward with the President’s request for him to serve as EPA’s General Counsel.

He is currently at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where, since August 2005, he has held the Senate-confirmed position of General Counsel.  In that role, he is responsible for providing legal advice, counsel, and support to the Secretary of Energy, the Deputy Secretary of Energy, and principal officers at the department. 

He also previously served as DOE’s Deputy General Counsel for Energy Policy.

Contact Andy O'Hare.

Representative Leads Session to
Consider Infrastructure Investment

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) yesterday led an informational session regarding a draft bill that would create a 14-member commission to examine existing data on infrastructure nationally.

The commission would then conduct a minimum of 50 public hearings around the country to develop basic principles for improved infrastructure investment as part of the the United States Commission on Infrastructure Investment Act. 

”My commission builds a national dialogue around infrastructure needs, includes local governmental leaders, engages communities across the country, and brings those views back to Congress to generate true, bipartisan action on these issues,” Blumenauer said.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) has announced her support for Blumenauer’s draft legislation.  Blumenauer plans to introduce this legislation next month.

Contact John Sullivan.

U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) yesterday introduced the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act. The Act is designed to stem the large number of failing home loans by allowing the federal government to insure distressed mortgages.

The bill calls on lenders or holders of troubled mortgages to write-down their mortgage to their market value, after which the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would provide up to $300 billion in guarantees to refinance those loans to a suitable level for repayment. To be eligible for the FHA’s assistance, the mortgage would have to have been originated between January 2005 and July 2007 and be on one’s principal residence.

The cost to the federal government to refinance the loans would be between $10 and $12 billion and would help rescue 1 million to 2 million failing loans.  The bill would also provide $10 billion for states to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed homes.

Contact Robert Sullivan.

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