Building America's Future urges Congress to include infrastructure in next COVID-19 package

The leaders of Building America’s Future sent a letter to the bipartisan Congressional Leadership urging the creation of a federal capital budget to fund infrastructure investment in the next COVID-19 response package.

Congress and the Trump Administration are considering a fifth COVID-19 response package to address the health, financial, and economic wreckage caused by the pandemic. Critical to jump-starting the economy is infrastructure investment which will create thousands of much-needed jobs across the country. As concerns are being raised that the trillions of dollars currently being spent related to the crisis are adding to the national debt, the creation of a federal capital budget would help to minimize additional impact.

“Smart and strategic investments in infrastructure are what is needed to kick start America’s economy,” said Ed Rendell, former governor of Pennsylvania and Co-Chair of Building America’s Future. “This is not without precedent: the best way to do get the economy going is to follow the lead of every political subdivision in the nation, from cities, to counties, to states and create a federal capital budget. A capital budget with borrowing spreads the cost of projects over many years instead of calculating the costs up front.”

“By investing in our nation’s future now and doing so in a fiscally responsible way through a capital budget will help to re-ignite America’s economy,” said Ray LaHood, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and Co-Chair of Building America’s Future. “The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that 27,800 jobs are created for every $1 billion invested. These are good paying jobs for the people who need them the most.”