Vitter Objects to Walsh Promotion Over Corps Concerns

Press Release

Vitter Objects to Walsh Promotion Over Corps Concerns

U.S. Sen. David announced his objections to the promotion of General Michael Walsh to Major General over the reluctance of the Army Corps of Engineers to take action on critical coastal and storm protection measure already written in current federal law.

"I have been talking to the Corps about very specific instances in which they have virtually vetoed critical protection projects actually mandated by Congress -- like Morganza to the Gulf -- through bureaucratic games. So far, their response has been largely more of the same," said Vitter. "It's just like the 14 critical deadlines they've missed since Katrina and Rita. So I decided that the Corps leadership should be impacted by their own mistakes and delays just like Louisianians have for years."

Since Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers was required under federal law to provide 14 different reports and plans to Congress, and has missed some deadlines by more than two years.
When these Corps reports are not turned in, actual construction on critical coastal and storm protection projects remain in limbo.

Vitter has argued that the Corps has persistently distorted and manufactured interpretations of federal law -- laws that Vitter fought hard to write into the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 to create a fundamental change within the bureaucracy of the Corps.

To date, the Corps has done nothing to act on many of these provisions that were designed to streamline the Corps' way of business and make them more efficient as their work plays such a critical role in the storm protection of many Louisianians.

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