The same principle should apply to big federal infrastructure projects. Too often, Washington pretends that writing the initial check is the end of the story. Lawmakers cut ribbons, issue press releases and declare victory, as if the one-time appropriation solved the problem. It never does.

What the nation has actually “bought” is not just a flood wall or pump station but also the long-term obligation to operate, maintain and ultimately replace them.

Every homeowner knows the importance of an inspection report; federal projects need the same scrutiny. Feasibility studies, benefit-cost ratios and environmental reviews are the equivalent of home inspections. They expose flaws before they become disasters. When we cut corners on these processes—often under political pressure to “get shovels in the ground”—we are not just buying a lemon. We are buying a public liability—and when a federal project fails, it’s not just a wet basement. It’s a neighborhood under water. Continuing the analogy, few people buy a house with one check. Mortgages last decades, forcing planning and budgeting.

The problem with federal infrastructure is that Congress loves the groundbreaking and hates the mortgage payment. Funding flows for the press release but dries up when the cameras leave. That’s how communities end up with half-built levees, incomplete pump stations, and diversion projects that exist only on paper. Imagine your bank letting you move into a house after you paid only the down payment. Worse yet, imagine only getting sufficient money to build a piece of the house over 20-30 years and not being able to move in until then. You would never consider investing in a house if that were the case. That’s how Washington behaves, and the result is predictable: unfinished work, unprotected communities and wasted taxpayer dollars.

Ownership Has Obligations

Ask any homeowner what really drains the budget, and he or she willvtell you: the repairs, the upgrades, the endless cycle of upkeep. Federal projects are no different.

Operations and maintenance—inspections, dredging, pump replacements, levee armoring—are the real costs of ownership. Pretend they don’t exist and the bill comes due in catastrophe.

Look no further than New Orleans, where the levee failures of Hurricane Katrina were not caused by a lack of groundbreaking ceremonies but by years of underinvestment in maintenance, coordination and risk analysis. We learned the lesson the hard way: neglect is always more expensive than prevention. Yet the pattern repeats itself across the country, where Congress treats projects as one-time purchases instead of as lifetime obligations.

Here’s the brutal truth: politicians get rewarded for the photo op, not for funding inspections 20 years later. Voters see the gleaming ribbon cutting; they rarely see the inspection crews, maintenance logs or O&M budget requests buried in congressional markup.

But in infrastructure, as in homeownership, what matters most is not the celebration of acquisition but the discipline of stewardship.

If your neighbor stopped paying his or her mortgage after the first year, you wouldn’t offer congratulattions on buying a house—you would call that homeowner irresponsible. Yet at the federal level, we accept exactly that behavior, and entire communities pay the price.

Until Congress begins to treat these projects the way a homeowner treats a mortgage—with respect for risk, with eyes wide open about costs and with a plan for the long haul—we’ll keep celebrating ribbon cuttings and mourning disasters.