Filling potholes on road to repair.

• Position: Construction Industry

Economic stimulus plan funds are being distributed to projects and programs across the nation, and opinions on the matter are mixed. The legislation--which includes around $48,000,000,000 in infrastructure transportation spending on everything from a high-speed rail service to highway projects to public transportation and intercity rail projects--does recognize, though, that the nation's infrastructure is crumbling. However, according to construction attorney Barry LePatner, the government had better look before it leaps since the legislation authorizing the distribution of this massive funding program assumes that the dollars spent on these projects will be utilized efficiently by a construction industry that is just as broken as the infrastructure it is charged with building and repairing.

"We've already seen what can happen when the government pumps money into broken industries without properly monitoring how it's used: billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted," asserts LePatner, author of Structural & Foundation Failures and Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry.

LePatner speaks, of course, of the "bailout" money poured into the U.S.'s financial and automotive industries--whose inept and inefficient ways have, to date, prevented the funds from benefiting the American people--and he insists that the construction industry is no better. In fact, as amazing as it may seem, it might be even worse. "When you give money to an industry that, according to recent studies, wastes upwards of $120,000,000,000 a year, and don't take the steps necessary to ensure it's used wisely, you are going to end up once again with no return on investment," he warns. "That's the stark reality--and for taxpayers already saddled with a terrible economy and a crushing mountain of national debt, this is bad news indeed."

The construction industry's biggest problems include rampant cost overruns and missed (in some cases by several years) project deadlines. LePatner contends that it will fritter away the billions allotted on projects that may well get underway--but will be abandoned before completion.

"Frankly, before infrastructure repairs can be made in a cost-effective and efficient way, the construction industry must make more than a few repairs of its own. The government, too, should do its part to ensure there is adequate protection against this waste in the accountability provisions of the stimulus plan...