I’m not about to go throw a party on the basis of the news but… the president is apparently moving ahead with an infrastructure repair program!  From the NY Times (emphasis added):

The White House on Wednesday fleshed out the plans President Obama announced in the State of the Union address to repair the nation’s ailing infrastructure.

A summary of the plan, which Mr. Obama discussed in interviews, was obtained by The New York Times. The draft sounds three major themes that Mr. Obama has discussed since he was first a candidate for the presidency, but with initiatives intended to engage in work that minimizes the need for Congressional approval and which can capitalize on private investment to help start projects.

The first element of the plan is a “fix it first” policy that calls for investing $50 billion in transportation infrastructure, subject to Congressional approval. Fully $40 billion of that amount would be directed to work on the highways, bridges, transit systems and airports “most in need of repair,” according to the document…

The second part of the plan would draw on private investment from across the nation and around the world for federal, state and local projects. It revives the president’s call for creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, which could bring public and private financing together to plan projects…

The third portion of the plan would work to eliminate red tape in permits and review for infrastructure projects…

After hearing a general description of the proposal, Robert Puentes, director of the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative, said that while some of the announcement had been on the president’s agenda for some time, “the important shift seems to be the administration is not waiting for the legislature,” but is “maximizing the things they can do themselves.”…

That’s a big deal.  When Congress is obstructionist you need to work around them.  Pres. Obama has made some recess appointments but to the best of my knowledge he hasn’t been active in attempting to work around Congress on nominally legislative issues.  That he appears willing to move forward unilaterally is encouraging.

Hey, and even more of a big deal and more to the point, the proposed program actually sounds like a good one!