Arnold Ventures (AV) has announced the launch of an infrastructure initiative that will support research, policy development, and advocacy efforts that bolster U.S. capacity to build infrastructure—including housing, transportation, energy transmission, and carbon reduction—faster, better, and at a lower cost. 

The initiative will support the creation and implementation of innovative policy solutions and partnerships at the local, state, and federal levels and will include comprehensive efforts to address cross-cutting challenges, such as addressing supply-side bottlenecks, accelerating the permitting process for critical projects, and improving the government’s ability to support project delivery. To that end, the initiative will back policies, partnerships, and thought leaders working to make near- and long-term progress and will consider all available policy levers—including legislation, executive actions, public-private partnerships, issue campaigns, and private sector and nonprofit collaboration—at every level of government.

The initiative will be led by Charlie Anderson, who has more than 15 years of high-level economic policy experience across the federal executive and legislative branches. Most recently, he served as a special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House National Economic Council in the Biden administration. He also has served as director of economic policy and budget for the administration’s COVID-19 Response Team, leading the team’s work to budget for fighting the global pandemic while coordinating international travel policy and workplace safety policy.

“Local, state, and federal governments are projected to spend trillions in public dollars on the infrastructure necessary to address a lack of housing supply, replace aging bridges and highways, and support a low-carbon economic future,” said AV president and CEO Kelli Rhee. “However, obstacles such as onerous policies, regulatory barriers, and the government’s diminished capacity to build cost-effective infrastructure all threaten to undermine this ambitious agenda. Arnold Ventures is focused on finding bipartisan solutions to help overcome these obstacles.” 

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