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(EXCERPT) A national infrastructure bank is on the table for possible inclusion in the jobs creation package that Congress and the administration are expected to put together early next year, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell told BNA Dec. 7.

President Obama mentioned a national infrastructure bank to leverage private money at the White House jobs summit Dec. 3 and again during a speech in Allentown, Pa. Dec. 4. 

“It's the only vehicle to leverage private funding, and if you leverage private funding to whatever it is the government decides to spend on infrastructure in the jobs bill, it'll broaden the reach and broaden the impact," Rendell said in an interview. “The president, we believe, is committed to try to get it into the jobs bill.”

Rendell was in Washington, D.C., pushing for an infrastructure bank on behalf of Building America's Future, a coalition founded by previous hit Rendell next hit, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I), and California Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), that promotes greater investment and reform in transportation and infrastructure.

An infrastructure bank in the jobs bill would be a step for greater infrastructure investment and reform, but the focus of the bill will be job creation, Rendell said.

“The message to the reformers is: we're going to try to get the infrastructure bank in [the jobs bill], but for the whole panoply of reforms, that has to wait,” Rendell said. “This country desperately needs a 10-year infrastructure revitalization and build out program, and that's where the reform should be and that's where the long-term funding mechanism should be.”

Bank Should Be Independent Agency

Rendell said he would prefer to see a national infrastructure bank that is set up as an independent agency, instead of a number of separate banks—such as the National Transportation Infrastructure Bank that was included in House transportation reauthorization language (73 IIPR, 6/19/09) and the Clean Energy Deployment Administration, a “green bank” included in House climate change legislation and the proposed Senate energy bill (88 IIPR, 7/13/09).