Dive Brief:

• Critics of federal bureaucracy have a fundamental complaint about having a federal program for funding transportation projects – it makes everything more expensive.
• Those who think it would be smarter and more efficient not to "boomerang" money through Washington have a particular dispute with Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rules, project labor agreements and "Buy American" provisions for materials.
• The critics love to cite an estimate by 1980s Federal Highway Administration chief Robert Farris that having Washington involved in transportation construction adds 30% to what it would otherwise cost.

Dive Insight:

A bridge is a bridge regardless of how much a welder or a crane operator gets paid, so many of the objections that critics raise are about social policies, such as prevailing wage rules. That makes for intensely political debates about programs that have real fiscal consequences as to how far Washington or the states can stretch a dollar.