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UMD Smith School Study Says America's Infrastructure Gap Is a Design Problem, Not a Money Problem

7/6/2026

A new paper from the University of Maryland's Robert H.

Smith School of Business argues that the United States faces a $3.7 trillion infrastructure shortfall over the next decade — and that the core obstacle is not a lack of money but a failure of structural design.

The research, released from the university's College Park campus, proposes a new financing model intended to unlock trillions of dollars in institutional capital that currently cannot reach local infrastructure projects.

What "Structural Design Problem" Actually Means Most infrastructure finance debates center on appropriations: how much Congress allocates, what states can borrow, whether the federal gas tax needs raising.