Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress finds the following: Throughout our Nation’s history, national banks have played a crucial role in financing most of our Nation’s public infrastructure. The largest banks included: The First (1791–1811) and Second (1816–1836) Banks of the United States, President Lincoln’s national banking system, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932–1957). These national banks were enacted with broad bi-partisan support, and financed the construction of: roads, turnpikes, bridges, and canals; the Transcontinental Railroad; the Hoover Dam; rural electrification; manufacturing start-ups; and rail, school, and farm improvements in every corner of our country.

Investments created the conditions for improved productivity, economic growth, and job creation; helped lift us out of the Great Depression; and contributed to our victory in World War II. The American Society of Civil Engineers (hereinafter referred to as ASCE ), in its 2021 Report Card and Failure to Act Series, estimates that $6,109,000,000,000 (expressed in 2019 dollars) is needed over the next ten years (2020–2029) to meet all of our country’s infrastructure needs. Of that amount, $3,483,000,000,000 is expected to be financed by: the Federal government through its normal budget appropriations process; and by States, counties, cities, utilities, and port and airport authorities through their general revenues, special taxes, user fees, and borrowing.

Even with this spending, however, a financing gap of $2,626,000,000,000 remains. To close this gap, our nation will need to increase investment, by all levels of government, from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2025. ASCE further estimates that the added $2,626,000,000,000 (expressed in 2019 dollars) needed over a ten-year period to bring systems up to a state of good repair is broken out as follows (amounts in parentheses): Roads, bridges, and transit ($1,035,000,000,000).

Drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems ($801,000,000,000). Schools ($250,000,000,000). Electricity generation, transmission, and distribution ($197,000,000,000). Aviation ($111,000,000,000). Dams, levees, inland waterways, and ports ($109,000,000,000). Passenger rail ($45,000,000,000). Public parks and recreation ($78,000,000,000). Expanded investment of at least $2,374,000,000,000 (expressed in 2019 dollars) is also needed for— new affordable housing ($720,000,000,000); a 17,000-mile high-speed rail network ($1,074,000,000,000); affordable and complete broadband access ($100,000,000,000); major water supply projects ($400,000,000,000); a new grid overlay to transport renewable energy ($80,000,000,000); and incorporated in each of the categories described in subparagraphs

(A)through (E): science and technology drivers; accommodation of population growth; energy savings; and improvements in rural, urban, and low-income areas that the public and private sectors are not currently serving. Although Federal grant programs, along with matching State and local funding, should continue to play a coordinating role in financing infrastructure in the United States, current and foreseeable demands on existing Federal, State, and local budgets exceed the resources to support these programs by a wide margin. In addition, a sharp bout of inflation in 2021–2022, and postponement of a robust 10-year spending plan to 2024–2033, requires a 40-percent increase above real costs to ensure adequate funding in nominal dollars. The establishment of a United States public deposit money bank would provide direct loans and other financing of up to $5,000,000,000,000 for qualifying infrastructure projects without requiring additional Federal taxes or deficits. Such funding would be adequate to finance all of the United States’ unfunded infrastructure needs, in all parts of the country, according to well-developed strategic plans. At the same time, it would return the United States to its most recent golden age when a National Infrastructure Bank was in place (1933–1957), during which time total factor productivity advanced by 3.5 percent per year, the economy grew on average 5.5 percent per year, income inequality fell by one-third, and Federal and State tax receipts rose dramatically.