Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Build America Bonds

In this View from the Hill segment U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) reflects on how and why the veteran lawmaker first came up with the idea of creating a Build America Bonds program; an innovative financial instrument used to fund transportation infrastructure. A member of the powerful, Senate Finance committee, Wyden introduced a proposal in February 2005 to create a Build America Bonds and after years of effort this year such a provision was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In this segment Wyden stresses the importance of the federal government investing more money into building a better transportation system for America. “You cannot have in this country big-league quality of life with little-league transportation,” he said.