Senate vote requires review of Corps flood control projects

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Wednesday to require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to submit flood control projects for review by an outside panel after senators cited New Orleans levees as a tragic example of agency shortcomings.

The Corps historically has operated with little oversight except from a small number of lawmakers who control its budget, allowing -- according to its critics -- wasteful spending and a failure to focus on projects posing the greatest flooding risks.

Critics said the levee breaks in New Orleans demonstrated the need for reforming the agency that is responsible for flood control on thousands of miles of inland waterways and protection of coastal areas from hurricane and other storm flooding.

The Senate approved by a 54-46 vote a measure that requires all flood control projects costing more than $40 million to be subject to an independent review including cost, engineering and design requirements and environmental impacts.

The provisions were part of a flood control bill, passed by a voice vote, that authorizes $11.6 billion worth of projects including new programs for environmental restoration of the Great Lakes, the Florida Everglades and coastal wetlands in Louisiana.

The bill also includes a $3.4 billion project to expand navigational locks on the Upper Mississippi River.

The House passed its version a year ago, before Hurricane Katrina, and the two bills now will have to be merged.

Proposals to require the Corps to submit an annual report that would rank projects on the basis of their priority and include how the agency is spending its money were rejected despite complaints that the Corps has no formal system that establishes what projects are most important.

If the new oversight had been in place before Katrina, said Feingold, a co-sponsor along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., of the amendment to require the outside panel review, "much of the flooding possibly could have been avoided" in New Orleans because important problems in the levees would have been discovered.

The legislation also directs a nationwide inventory of levees and inspection of all levees that involve safety or protection of public health.

The first water project bill to come before the Senate since 2000, it would give the go-ahead -- although without specific funding -- to a program aimed at reversing the erosion of Louisiana's coastal wetlands and would authorize $1.5 billion to help restore the Florida Everglades.

It calls for building seven additional locks on the Upper Mississippi River as part of the $3.4 billion project to address expanding river barge traffic. Environmentalists have opposed the expansion program but reacted favorably overall to the Senate-passed bill.

It "represents a new era for the Corps" said Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. He singled out the various environmental restoration projects, calling the bill a "sea change in how we as a country handle water resources."

The destruction of coastal wetlands, exacerbated by Katrina, has made Louisiana more vulnerable to flooding in storms, flood control experts say.

The House passed its water projects legislation in July 2005, before Katrina led to renewed interest in the Corps' flood control program.

There was widespread bipartisan agreement among senators Wednesday that the agency needed greater oversight, but how much was a point of disagreement.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., who along with Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., had offered their own oversight proposal -- limiting reviews to projects costing at least $100 million -- said that Feingold's proposal went too far.

"The Corps needs to have an improved process" and more oversight, said Bond, but he argued that more bureaucracy could delay projects, deprive communities of flood controls and open the way for lawsuits challenging projects.

The measure offered by Inhofe and Bond, which was rejected 51-49, essentially makes "a mockery of independent review" by exempting all but the most expensive projects and giving the Corps say over when independent review was required, said Feingold.

McCain said the Corps has been notorious for cost overruns, but he added: "We showed in New Orleans we're not just talking about cost overruns. We're talking about lives of our citizens."