Infrastructure 2022: Opening keynote

Mr. Landrieu will be introduced by Seán W. McCarthy, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Build America Mutual Assurance Company.

Transcription:

Sean W. McCarthy (00:03):

Good morning. I'm Sean McCarthy, CEO of Build America Mutual. It's my pleasure to introduce Mitch Landrieu today. He's the Senior Advisor to the president and White House Infrastructure Coordinator, and that's a big job but nobody's better suited to playing this role than Mitch. Mitch served as the Lieutenant governor in Louisiana from 2004 to 2010, and was the mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018. In fact, I worked with him when I was the president of FSA on several transactions that New Orleans issued. It's a challenging role because the bipartisan infrastructure bill for infrastructure has really provided a tremend amount of funds to be used for not only repairing, but also building new essential infrastructure throughout the United States, but getting the money into the hands of the users, that's the trick. So I think over the next couple of years, and particularly this morning, we're gonna get to hear Mitch detail how that money's gonna get from the federal government and into the market to make our infrastructure across the nation better.

Mitch Landrieu (01:18):

Thank you, Sean, for that introduction, and good morning to everyone who's with us today. I wanna start by giving a huge thanks to the bond buyer for inviting me to speak at your infrastructure conference today. To everyone in the audience, I know that innovation and infrastructure is at the heart of what you do, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk to you about how it's at the very core of the president's infrastructure agenda as well. The day that you're watching this video actually marks a very important day for the bipartisan infrastructure law. A year ago today, the president signed this once in a generation bill giving way to an infrastructure decade in our country. Since that historic day, we have made incredible strides to deliver truly unprecedented results from the opportunity that it presents to us all. Let me take a moment and share some highlights with you.

(02:07)

To date, we've pushed over 185 billion out of the door and announced nearly 7,000 projects reaching over 4,000 communities across all 50 state DC and the territories. We're rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports, ensuring that folks like Jose Ramirez, Fahado, a business owner in East Las Vegas, can draw more customers in thanks to a safer, more walkable street with delivering clean water. So that Naisha Clark Young, a mom and a grandmother in Saginaw, Michigan doesn't have to worry that her kids and grandkids might get poisoned by lead in their water. We're cleaning up legacy pollution, including abandoned mine lands and orphan oil and gas wells to protect families' health and put former mine workers like Jay Greer back to work, rebuilding the communities they grew up in. We're delivering electric school buses across the country so that fourth graders like Vera Macrova at John Lewis Elementary School can breathe in clean air and reach their God-given potential. And we're expanding high speed internet, affordable internet so that Michelle North, who lives right next to a broadband line in Eppa, Virginia, but doesn't have internet for her home business, can finally get access to the resources that she needs. Needless to say, these investments are making a real difference for real Americans across all America, and as we go, we're also building a strong economy from the bottom up in the middle out. We're creating good paying jobs and we're lowering costs for families. But here's the truth, we couldn't do any of this without the partnership across state and local government not for profits, philanthropy, and the private sector. Together with partners like you, we aren't just rebuilding US infrastructure. We're making the next generation of investments that will position the US economy to compete and lead in the decades to come. For example, we already hit the ground running to deliver 7.5 billion to build the first ever national network of electric vehicle charges.

(04:05)

On top of that, we're investing 65 billion dollars in clean energy transmission, developing the next generation of clean energy storage and transmission technologies. These actions alone have sent a clear signal to the market, unleashing a boom in private investment since the president took office. In fact, companies have invested nearly 100 billion dollars in the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries and charges in the United States, and the pace of that investment is accelerating In 2022, private investments in the US manufacturing was more than triple. The level in 2020, investment in batteries was a staggering 28 times higher. That shows you that through our public and private sector investments in clean energy, we are growing the economy and making the United States of America more competitive in the industries of the future. And I don't have to tell you that bond dealers have a critical role to play in our success. We know that in the US there's a greater than 4 trillion dollars market for municipal bonds, and it's one of the largest sources of infrastructure financing at the state and local level where we fund most of our infrastructure.

(05:13)

That's why for two of the president's major priorities, building a clean energy economy and expanding internet access to rural and undeserved communities, the bipartisan infrastructure law expands private equity bonds. This bill also expands other forms of innovative financing, including new lending to transit-oriented development that can advance even more development while keeping transportation options open and more affordable. Overall, we're proud of the work that we've done so far alongside the private sector, whether that's on the expanding EVs and EV charging broadband are new areas like carbon capture, but there is so much more to do. Our partnership is the key to building faster, building stronger, building better in this country. I look forward to the work we'll continue to do together. Thank you again for having me here today and you all have a great day as we rebuild a better America.