Debbie says: I attended a workshop on this issue at the beginning of the month in D.C. Sierra Club people were in attendance. There were two regional staff, one chapter staff and three volunteers. Reform of the Army Corps is a very hot topic in Washington D.C. right now as the article explains. washingtonpost.com General Says Change Is Needed; Daschle to Co-Sponsor Bill By Michael Grunwald Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 19, 2002; Page A19 The military commander of the Army Corps of Engineers told Congress yesterday that "the Corps must change," and Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) threw his weight behind a bipartisan proposal to overhaul the embattled public works agency. In testimony at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on changing the Corps, Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers expressed confidence in the expertise and integrity of his agency. But Flowers also said he was "very embarrassed" by several botched water projects, particularly a $311 million Delaware River deepening excoriated recently by the General Accounting Office. In an unusual admission for a Corps leader, Flowers said that the agency's internal planning and oversight had "eroded over time" and that he was not opposed to legislative proposals for independent reviews of Corps projects. "We've had a couple of high-profile failures," Flowers said. "That's unacceptable." He also suggested $5 billion in outdated projects for possible deauthorization by Congress. The Corps has enjoyed a warm relationship with Congress, and at yesterday's hearing, agency supporters such as Sens. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) and James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) vowed to battle any changes that might delay flood-control and navigation projects. Along with Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), they also warned that the Bush administration's proposed budget cuts for the Corps could weaken the economy and allow dangerous deterioration of aging levees, locks and dams. "I didn't pick this fight," Bond said. "But I'm ready and anxious to join it with energy and enthusiasm." But in a victory for environmentalists, fiscal conservatives and other Corps critics, Daschle announced that he would join Sens. Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.), Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) as co-sponsors of a bill to revamp the Corps, calling it "a thoughtful and justifiable response to the ongoing problems associated with the Corps." Daschle said he was troubled by "cost-benefit analyses rigged to justify billion-dollar projects, disregard of environmental laws and a pattern of catering to special interests." "We need a Corps that balances economic development and environmental protection," he said. The 227-year-old Corps has faced unprecedented scrutiny lately, and Flowers yesterday acknowledged that it faces "a turning point." The GAO, the National Academy of Sciences, internal Pentagon investigators and the Office of Management and Budget have all detailed serious problems with Corps economic analyses. The agency has been forced to suspend work on the Delaware River deepening and a similar dredging of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and had to restart the biggest study in its history after top officials were caught trying to skew data to justify billion-dollar lock expansions on the Mississippi River. Congress usually passes a bill every two years authorizing new Corps projects, but Smith yesterday said he would block any bill that did not include major changes in the agency. Feingold, who is not a member of the committee, testified about their bill, which would require independent peer reviews for all costly projects, update agency guidelines to emphasize environmental protection, and force local communities to pay larger percentages of Corps port-dredging and beach replenishment efforts. "I want the fiscal and management cloud over the Corps to dissipate so that the Corps can continue to contribute to our environment and our economy," Feingold said. But even with the majority leader's support, any Corps overhaul will face a battle on the Hill. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is a staunch opponent, and he recently signed a Bond letter -- along with four other senators from Mississippi River states -- warning that "so-called reforms" that hold up flood-control projects would create serious hardships for low-income communities. The Corps is even more popular in the House. For many legislators, the Corps presents a quandary. For example, Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) opposes the Delaware River deepening, and he was appalled by the GAO's documentation of Corps miscalculations that overestimated the project's economic benefits by 300 percent. He said he was intrigued by the overhaul bill, and asked Flowers a sharp question when the general seemed sympathetic to Bond's suggestion that the agency should stop bothering with cost-benefit analyses. But Corzine did say he objected to one portion of Smith's bill: the part that would increase the local cost share for beach replenishment. The New Jersey shore has billions of dollars worth of beach replenishment projects. C 2002 The Washington Post Company *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 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