[CPEO-MEF] Corps of Engineers Chief Drafts Plan to Reorganize Agency

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

THE WASHINGTON POST
Corps of Engineers Chief Drafts Plan to Reorganize Agency
By Eric Pianin and Christopher Lee
Wednesday, September 24, 2003; Page A27

The military commander of the Army Corps of Engineers intends to launch
a major reorganization next month that would strengthen the military's
hand in reviewing and authorizing water projects while diminishing the
role of civilian Pentagon employees and members of Congress.

Under the plan drafted by Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, the Corps would be
divided into eight new "regional business centers," each promoting nine
lines of services ranging from navigation and flood control to
recreation and environmental restoration. Unlike the current system, in
which requests for harbor dredging and other major water projects must
clear a series of local, regional and congressional hurdles, the new
military-dominated business centers would solicit business and make most
of the key decisions.

If the plan were fully implemented, it would represent a dramatic
departure from current practice in which powerful members of Congress
dictate the selection, pace and price tag for major projects.

Flowers intends to ask Congress to forgo its traditional line-item
authority over the funding of studies of potential new projects and to
consolidate and speed up the authorization and appropriations process.
Lawmakers jealously guard their prerogatives and many would likely
oppose the request.

He also has proposed that Congress eliminate the requirement that local
communities share in the cost of project feasibility studies -- a move
that would boost federal costs by $100 million or more a year.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54802-2003Sep23.html

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