T&I Panel Hosts P3s Roundtable June 16

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Panel on Public-Private Partnerships will hold a round table June 16 in New York City to explore the role financial institutions can have in infrastructure development projects.

Republicans and Democrats have expressed support for public-private partnerships (P3s), but they are especially appealing to conservative lawmakers who prefer privatizing infrastructure systems. Critics, however, argue P3s burden states or municipalities with long-term debt and leave users paying tolls for many years.

A typical P3 arrangement consists of investors putting up capital for big-ticket projects that pay them back over time in dedicated debt payments or tolls. In Virginia, for example, officials approved a P3 agreement to open the express lanes on the Capital Beltway, which are known as “hot lanes.” Transportation officials in Texas, California and Florida have enacted legislation facilitating the use of P3s.

The P3 panel’s chairman, Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, has indicated that input gathered at the round table will help lawmakers in the crafting of a long-term transportation policy measure, such as the reauthorization of the 2012 MAP-21 highway law that expires at the end of September.

The round table’s witnesses includes representatives from J.P. Morgan, Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, IFM Investors, Barclays, and a scholar from Columbia University.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. and it will be streamed on the committee’s website.