The WIFIA Loan Program Can Go Far. It Should Go Together.

By Chad Praul & John Ryan

“If you need to go fast, go alone. If you need to go far, go together.”

Classic proverbs about everyday life aren’t usually relevant to topics like innovative federal financing for U.S. public infrastructure renewal. But here’s an exception:  the U.S. EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program has rapidly developed an independent niche in the debt capital markets for large, highly rated public water agencies. That’s an impressive achievement and a solid foundation for future growth. Yet the program needs to go much farther to realize its full potential. As the proverb says, when you need to go far, go together. In WIFIA’s case, that means going together with other sources of policy and impact-oriented infrastructure finance that are headed in the same direction.  And one of the best ways for the program to work together with innovative capital is already in WIFIA’s toolbox – the capability to provide U.S. federal guarantees on loans and bonds.