Urbanist Scott Beyer has a matter-of-fact essay in Atlantic Cities titled "Seven Reasons U.S. Infrastructure Projects Cost Way More Than They Should." Government-set wages (1931 Davis-Bacon Act), lengthy environmental review, "buy American" laws, and mandatory do-good extras are among the provisions that, cumulatively, can double the costs of a public project.
America's decrepit infrastructure (it has a D+ rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers) is attributable not mainly to a lack of resources, but to obsolete laws. All these laws hang around America's neck like so many millstones.
It's easy to fix. Congress could just pass a law that scrapes away the old requirements. Let the public sector bid out contracts like the private sector does. Give environmental officials authority to approve projects after a year of review, not a decade (as countries like Germany and Canada do).
But Congress treats existing laws like scripture. Congress doesn't even have the idea that it is responsible for cleaning out obsolete laws. (See here.)
American government needs a spring cleaning. Not just to fix infrastructure, but to fix every program. Not to "de-regulate," but to make regulation practical, effective and in line with current priorities. If Congress won't do it, then we need to organize a popular movement to force Congress to act. I talk about how to do this in The Rule of Nobody, reviewed in today's Wall Street Journal.
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