James Oberstar: “This is not just an issue, though, for Virginia, Maryland, Delaware.”

The diverse water resources challenges throughout the United States are often studied, planned, and managed in individual 'silos,' independently of other water areas and projects.

We must move away from complete reliance on public funding for infrastructure and forge a new, stronger connection between private capital and infrastructure needs.

Using a National Infrastructure Bank to finance a large part of our infrastructure needs means we will be able to target Federal spending more efficiently.

But we all also recognize that the potential cost of meeting these needs is immense.