Following President Joe Biden’s signing of the expansive infrastructure bill on Nov. 15, the government is set to spend $1.2 trillion on bridges, highways, clean water, broadband, and more. As that “Building a Better America” cash flows into the hands of private contractors, the dark specter of fraud and abuse will undoubtedly appear.
Who will expose the bad apples who misuse these taxpayer funds? The Department of Justice has that responsibility, but it will rely heavily on whistleblowers — individuals with insider knowledge of wrongdoing, most often employees or executives at private companies motivated by a “do the right thing” mindset and handsome financial incentives in whistleblower reward programs.
The infrastructure law will channel $110 billion to roads and bridges, $66 billion to railroads, $39 billion to transit, $25 billion to airports, $17 billion to ports and waterways, $11 billion to safety measures, $7.5 billion to electric vehicle chargers, $7.5 billion to electric buses, and $1 billion to reconnecting communities separated by previous infrastructure projects. The bridge expenditures represent the single largest investment of this kind since the construction of the interstate highway system and the largest federal investment in public transit in U.S. history. Some 700,000 new jobs are expected to result from the total spending bill in manufacturing, construction, and transportation.
Competing for such lucrative government contracts has led some companies...
The St. Charles Police Department provided more clarity into what caused the “misinformation” on a Facebook scanner page that claimed there was an active shooter last Thursday. In a posts on its o...