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GOP Sen. Hutchison to co-sponsor infrastructure bank bill with Kerry
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) will co-sponsor Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) bill to create a federal infrastructure bank to fund projects around the nation.
Aides to Kerry told The Hill on Monday that at least one Republican would back the plan. On Tuesday, Kerry's office confirmed it was Hutchison who would be sharing top billing on the legislation.
The pair plan to unveil the bill at a noon press conference Tuesday in the Foreign Relations Committee hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The legislation would create an American Infrastructure Financing Authority at an initial cost of about $10 billion. Its objective would be to provide loans and loan guarantees for large infrastructure projects.
Kerry has stressed that money from the bank would come in the form of loans, not grants.
“The federal government does no more than 50 percent of the loan,” the senator told The New York Times. “We expect that to leverage $600 billion or so in infrastructure investments over time.”
About $30 billion for the bank is included in the six-year, $556 billion transportation plan proposed by President Obama. But lawmakers in both chambers have already signaled they are unlikely to appropriate that much money for transportation.
