Building America's Future Letter on High Speed Rail and National Infrastructure Bank

To the House and Senate Conferees:

As you work to finalize the Fiscal year 2010 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, we urge you to include funding for two priorities important to Building America’s Future: high speed rail and a National Infrastructure Bank.

We firmly believe that America is ready for high speed rail. The missing link to making this a reality has been the lack of a national vision and a financial commitment by the federal government that is proportional to the breadth and scope of this undertaking. That all changed with the inclusion of $8 billion for high speed rail in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This historic commitment to investing in a 21st Century infrastructure initiative is reminiscent of the nation’s commitment to building the interstate highway system.

This initial investment in high speed rail has been met with enthusiasm in states and cities across the nation as the Federal Railroad Administration recently announced it had received forty five applications from twenty three states totaling nearly $50 billion. While the ARRA funding was a significant down payment on this initiative, additional investments are necessary to continue to make this vision a reality. Therefore, we urge the conferees to maintain the $2 billion for high speed rail contained in the House version of the bill.

We also urge the conferees to include funding for a National Infrastructure Bank in the final bill. While such a bank has not yet been established, there are several promising legislative proposals in both the House and Senate that would establish such an entity. Congress must act quickly to address the continuing deterioration of our nation’s infrastructure. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers has reported that $2.2 trillion is needed over the next five years just to maintain our current infrastructure in a state of good repair. Our nation must employ every available tool to fund and finance infrastructure repairs and improvements and a National Infrastructure Bank must be part of the mix.

We appreciate your consideration of our requests and look forward to working with