If you’ve traveled abroad to Western Europe or Asia, you know their roads, rails, seaports, wind farms and solar panels put our facilities to shame by comparison. And you also know President Trump’s infrastructure bill is going nowhere fast.

But that doesn’t mean there’s not a pot of money available to invest in infrastructure right now, especially in energy-related infrastructure. And when I say pot of money, I’m talking about the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) loan program, with $40 billion–yes, billion–in existing spending authority.

The case for using these funds–which have already been used to make infrastructure investments in electricity transmission, carbon capture and sequestration, utility-scale electricity storage, nuclear projects and advanced vehicle manufacturing–was made on May 17 in a blog post by Brookings senior fellow Dan Reicher.

Reicher writes that an ad hoc coalition of companies and NGOs has been pressing the case for DOE’s Loan Program Office (LPO) investments in energy and transportation infrastructure for more than a year.

Reicher testified on DOE’s mission at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January. He said there was no need to appropriate $50 billion in federal funding (as Rep. Ryan Costello, R-PA proposed) because there was already $40 billion in LPO ready to be deployed for infrastructure.

The testimony caught the attention of both the vice chairman of the committee and its ranking member on the energy subcommittee.

The two subsequently penned a bipartisan letter that emphasized that “projects supported by the LPO are geographically diverse and impact of every region of the country…[and have] created over $50 billion in total project investment and saved or created 56,000 American jobs and greatly assisted local economies.

The Trump administration had proposed eliminating the loan program but congressional appropriators rejected the request in the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed by Trump in March.

The loan program was originally authorized in 2005 and some key members of Congress don’t want it eliminated. In fact, the omnibus spending bill explicitly directs DOE to process LPO applications, provides funds to administer the program and does not rescind any previously appropriated funds, Reicher wrote.

He said the loan program is “alive” and available now to begin funding nationally significant energy projects “at a time of need and delay” on a formal infrastructure bill. However, Reicher warned that this is only a “temporary reprieve if DOE does not get LPO quickly back in gear, OMB stalls decisionmaking on individual loans or Congress has a change of heart.”

Reicher urged Congress and the Trump administration to make the most of a good opportunity. “With LPO back in business, and appropriate reforms in the works, this successful program can do even more to advance the deployment of innovative energy infrastructure in states across the country.”