"Neither states nor private investors can get projects off the drawing board with this kind of uncertainty," he said. "American jobs hang in the balance."

The chamber will lead the fight to remove the regulatory, financial, and legal barriers that have locked away hundreds of billions of dollars in private infrastructure spending, Donohue said.

"But we must also have a strong, consistent, and reliable federal commitment to infrastructure -- or these private dollars will go somewhere else," he said.

Overall, Donohue said America begins 2011 in much better shape than 2010.

"The state of American business is improving," he said, pointing to expectations that the Gross Domestic Product will grow by 3.2% this year. "While the recovery may be picking up steam, it is fragile and uneven. There are many unanswered questions that must be addressed before companies will start aggressively hiring. Over the next year, the chamber's #1 priority will be to turn this economic recovery into a jobs recovery so that we can start putting Americans back to work."

The full text of Donohue's speech is available at bit.ly/SAB2011.