WCBC

June 12th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

The Trump Administration has not established a legacy of policy clarity, but it is increasingly apparent that the President’s infrastructure plan will be heavily reliant on public-private partnerships. Public-private partnerships (P3s) should be a part of rebuilding America’s infrastructure, but if the White House’s plan is overly reliant upon private capital, it will ultimately be insufficient and inadequate.

As someone who spent two decades as an entrepreneur before being elected to Congress, I believe that the private sector is an incredible source of innovation and expertise. In the case of infrastructure, the private sector can and should also be considered as a viable source of capital and financing. A P3 can take various forms, but fundamentally it is a collaborative effort between a federal, state or local government entity and a private entity to build, maintain, finance or operate an infrastructure project. Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and others have all embraced P3s as part of their infrastructure portfolio and in many cases this has led to these nations being able to address pressing infrastructure needs more effectively than has sometimes been the case here. This is another example of the United States falling behind.