While an infrastructure bank does not exist in the United States, theoretically  such a bank would provide a new funding source to the nation’s essential infrastructure projects, allowing cities, states, and even regions as a whole to build new rail lines or electricity grids.

Theoretically, this independently-run institution would finance only meritorious projects and it would do so by leveraging the government’s guaranteed and virtually infinite bonding capabilities. A national infrastructure bank could provide affordable housing construction loans.

The infrastructure bank’s financing mechanisms have yet to be clearly defined. A national infrastructure bank was proposed for the first time in 2007 with the Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007, but this concept has yet to come fruition.

Read more about the history of infrastructure banks here.