http://dc.streetsblog.org/2010/01/20/dodd-and-delauro-vow-to-get-infrastructure-bank-done-this-year/

Supporters from every corner of the transportation universe joined Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) today at a press event aimed at jumpstarting a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), which the two Connecticut lawmakers vowed to steer to passage this year.

Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee and has announced his retirement as of 2011, said today that he is "determined, in these remaining 12 months, to do everything I can to make sure [the NIB] becomes the law of the land."

DeLauro's NIB bill, which boasts 44 cosponsors in the House, would set up the bank as a government-owned entity with its own board of directors. The NIB could issue bonds, borrow money, and lend the interest it earns on financed debt to encourage public-private partnerships on projects ranging from transit to broadband to clean energy.

A Senate version has yet to emerge, but Dodd has spearheaded similar legislation in the past and said today that he plans to move quickly, holding a hearing in the Banking panel next month.

In addition, Rendell told Streetsblog Capitol Hill in December that he believes the NIB could advance as part of the Obama administration's broader job-creation effort.

The Pennsylvanian's infrastructure advocacy group, Building America's Future, marshaled groups as disparate as Transportation for America, AASHTO, the liberal Campaign for America's Future, and the libertarian Reason Foundation to sign onto the NIB push.