To encourage private firms to submit both solicited and unsolicited proposals, three states, Delaware, Indiana, and Texas, have statutes requiring payments to unsuccessful bidders, to reimburse them for the costs of compiling a proposal and other work provided. Georgia, Louisiana, and Maryland, on the other hand, take the opposite approach and explicitly prevent public agencies from reimbursing bidders, even if these agencies do use some of the work that the private agency put forth. Allowing public agencies to pay unsuccessful bidders for their work may encourage better projects by stimulating more bids as long as public agencies carefully monitor the contents and quality of submitted proposals, so that private firms do not get paid multiple times for the same or similar proposals. In general, statutes that allow for these payments are recommended.