The Water Resources Reform and Development Act was signed into law by President Obama in June. The WRRDA authorizes funding for the construction and repair of waterway and port projects across the United States and includes a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program that is similar to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s popular TIFIA program for public-private partnerships, or P3s, focused on the transportation sector.
Writing in a research note about the passage of the bill, members of Mayer Brown’s infrastructure practice John Schmidt, David Narefksy, Joseph Seliga and George Miller note: “The U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIFIA credit support program is by far the most successful federal program providing financial support for surface transportation public-private partnerships. Few major P3 transportation projects in recent years would have been possible, and few P3s in the pipeline will go forward, without TIFIA assis