The American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) is encouraging lawmakers to include infrastructure bonding investments for payment and performance of public-private partnership (P3) projects to protect small businesses and resources.
“Insurers are committed to keeping families, individuals, and businesses safe, protecting lives and property and mitigating risk,” Nat Wienecke, senior vice president of federal government relations at APCIA, said. “APCIA supports H.R. 1641/S.638, introduced by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Troy Balderson (R-OH), which offers a bi-partisan and bi-cameral solution to bonding public-private partnership infrastructure investments.”
The APCIA indicated bonding requires a thorough prequalification process and decreases large and complex public infrastructure projects financial risks – noting the organization supports payment and performance bond requirements for P3 infrastructure projects financed using Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation (TIFIA) funds. The APCIA said the bonding requirements would translate to all projects financed by TIFIA possessing the same protections as traditional federal infrastructure projects.
Additionally, the APCIA is advocating for the inclusion of additional federal, state, and community-based road and auto safety provisions in any surface transportation reauthorization bill this year, officials said, noting the organization regularly provides safety resources for policymakers, consumers, and the media on natural catastrophe preparedness and recovery and auto safety.