Good Idea

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) rocks. He suggests replacing our nation’s willy-nilly pork barrel spending on infrastructure with an intelligent, coherent infrastructure strategy — complete with people in charge and, you know, accountable.

As described in the New York Times:

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut is sponsoring a bill that would create an infrastructure bank with a bipartisan board of directors and a chief executive to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

The board would streamline the process of reviewing and signing off on major infrastructure proposals. It would determine the value to the public of each project — and its environmental impact. It would provide federal investment capital for approved projects and use that money to leverage private investment.

This is a great idea to help prevent the next New Orleans or Minnesota bridge collapse, and to help deal with the mess when such disasters do occur.

President-elect Obama, I hope you’re listening.