Public Banking Institute Chair Ellen Brown, Esq., Rhode Island Senator Louis DiPalma, and Pennsylvania Representative Mary Jo Daley, were joined by other elected officials for an evening Zoom Town Hall, “Infrastructure Crises Multiply While Support for National Infrastructure Bank Grows,” on March 21, 2024.

The ongoing partial shutdown of the Washington Bridge in Rhode Island, and the decision to demolish and replace half the bridge highlights again the severe infrastructure crisis in the United States. The Washington Bridge is a major artery carrying Interstate 195 in and out of Providence, the capital, and it will take at least three years to replace the bridge! 

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is a crucial “down payment” on fixing key infrastructure problems. But the need dwarfs the $550 billion in new investment of that law. Any one of many problems could erupt into public view, like the Rhode Island bridge. 

• The number of high-hazard-potential dams in the United States now tops 15,000. Many were built during or before the WWII era and have been widely neglected since then. 
• One out of three U.S. bridges must be replaced or repaired. That’s more than 222,000 bridges, of which 76,600 need to be replaced. Every county in the country has bridges that need to be replaced. 
  
• On November 30, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule requiring all lead water service lines be replaced within ten years. They provided no new money to do this! The BIL has $15 billion to replace all lead lines. The total cost will exceed $100 billion. 



Hence, support for the $5 trillion National Infrastructure Bank has been expanding. There are already many more cosponsors on the congressional bill, HR4052, than cosponsored in the last Congress. More state and local resolutions have been introduced urging support for the legislation, including recent resolutions in the Indiana, Wisconsin and Rhode Island legislatures. 

There have also been a flurry of media articles touting the contributions of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, who led the effort to create the American System of economic development. A cornerstone of that system was Hamilton’s Bank of the United States. It is one model of the current National Infrastructure Bank. In the past two weeks alone, articles on Hamilton have appeared in the New York Times, Bloomberg News and the scholarly American Journal of Legal History. 

The campaign to create the National Infrastructure Bank policy unites past, present and future. Please watch this crucial webinar. 

Speakers:

Alphecca Muttardy, former Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund, VA

Rep. Mary Jo Daley, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Conshohocken

Ellen Brown, Esq., author, and Chair Public Banking Institute, Los Angeles

Rep. Brian Munroe, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Warminster

Rep. Joey Andrews, Michigan House of Representatives, St. Joseph

Rep. Donavan McKinney, Michigan House of Representatives, Detroit

Sen. Louis DiPalma, Rhode Island Senate, Middletown

Sen. Bill Tallman, New Mexico Senate, Albuquerque

Councilman Michael Balls, Saginaw City Council, MI

Dr. Andrew Winnick, former Professor of Economics and Monetary Policy, Cal State; Los Angeles

Moderator: Julie Olsen, Small Business Owner, Chair, Alaska Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, Anchorage