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Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) unveiled a draft version of his Lincoln Legacy Infrastructure Development Act, which proposes to generate $100 billion in private investment to help bolster rail, port, road and airport infrastructure.

Current rail, public transit, highway and bridge funding needs total about $225 billion per year through 2055, but current spending totals less than $90 billion annually, according to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study commission. The bill proposes to remove federal restrictions on private-public partnerships, provide states greater flexibility to generate transportation revenue and enhance access to private capital investment for transportation infrastructure.
 
In addition, the legislation would increase annual funding for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act from $122 million to $750 million; create a Private-Public Partnership Challenge Grant Program to encourage states to pass legislation enabling private-public partnerships; form a Private-Public Experimental Program to identify barriers to private transit investment and authorize the Federal Transit Administration to identify creative solutions; add eligibility to high-speed rail projects and development costs under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program, and allow high-speed rail projects to use future dedicated revenues or user fees in place of collateral to lower credit risk premiums.

“Our roads, rail, transit and airports are facing unprecedented funding shortfalls," said Kirk in a prepared statement. "One of President Lincoln's greatest legacies was the Transcontinental Railway Act, which led to the completion of the largest infrastructure project in American history without a dime from Congress. The Lincoln Legacy Infrastructure Development Act embraces the Lincoln administration's public-private partnership success by lifting federal restrictions.”

States such as Indiana have encouraged public-private partnerships to finance infrastructure projects, while the Illinois General Assembly has passed legislation that would enable the Legislature to consider such partnerships, according to Kirk.