U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced Tuesday that their legislation requiring analyses of the value of federally supported transportation loans was included as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden on Monday.
The Senators’ legislation requires Transportation and Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing (RRIF) projects valued at over $750 million to conduct a Value-for-Money analysis as part of their application process. Additionally, the legislation requires the Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau to report to Congress on utilizing Public Private Partnerships (P3) and best practices for project financing.
“Oftentimes, public-private partnerships (P3) produce high-quality projects at a lower cost. With the vast amount of infrastructure improvements needed around this country, P3s are a helpful way in keeping taxpayer costs down,” Portman said. “This legislation will direct DOT to require certain federally supported projects to do a Value-for-Money analysis, an essential step for states and localities in determining whether or not a P3 would in fact be a less expensive, more efficient path forward for project delivery.”
The “Value-for-Money” analysis would be required to evaluate the life-cycle cost of the project; the costs of using public financing versus private financing for the project; a description of key assumptions made while doing the project’s analysis; and a discussion of the cost/benefit analysis associated with risk allocation and the determination of risk premiums assigned to various delivery scenarios.
“Public-private partnerships are valuable ways for states and localities to complete projects through financially sound solutions. The bipartisan infrastructure bill will require states and communities to consider public-private partnerships when reviewing transportation project financing to ensure that we are making the best use of taxpayer dollars,” Manchin said.