(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator David Vitter today sent a letter to President Bush outlining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ failures in meeting deadlines to protect the New Orleans region from flooding. The text of the letter follows below:

June 29, 2006

BY HAND

IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUESTED

The Honorable George W. Bush

President of the United States

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C.  20500

            Re: Top Ongoing Failures Of The U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers

Dear Mr. President:

On September 15, 2005, you made a bold pledge in Jackson Square to lead a vibrant, successful Gulf Coast recovery. And you have kept that pledge in innumerable ways, most notably by leading the fight to provide the assistance necessary for us to get back on our feet.

Now bureaucratic incompetence and inertia threaten all of this.

That is why I write to express my extreme concern over the top ongoing failures of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ("the Corps") in the Louisiana rebuilding effort.  These failures threaten to allow major flooding of Southeast Louisiana this hurricane season, which would kill our recovery.

Of course, the Corps faces unprecedented challenges and amounts of work. What is so disheartening, though, is that the ongoing failures to which I refer are not primarily due to unavoidable engineering obstacles.  Rather, they are due to multiple Corps organizational failures, a lack of a true sense of emergency and urgency, and conscious decisions to save money rather than maximize pumping capacity for this hurricane season.

The biggest issue is inadequate pumping capacity to evacuate rainfall from Orleans and Jefferson Parishes this season. 

Just imagine this scenario: A significant storm heads toward Southeast Louisiana. To avoid the catastrophic breaches of the outfall canals which occurred after Katrina (due to Corps design mistakes, not overtopping), new gates are closed to protect the outfall canals from storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain. But because the Corps is so behind in installing pumping capacity for this scenario, large areas of Orleans and Jefferson Parishes—including tens of thousands of homes—flood.

What would the result of this be? The result would be recovery stopped dead in its tracks with tens of thousands of families deciding to leave the area permanently. The result could be the virtual death of New Orleans as a major American city.

Again, this isn't a question of money, or of the commitment of your Administration. This is a question of Corps' management competence.

Right now the Corps is on a path to fail. And this would prove to be a failure as big and consequential as the failure of all levels of government immediately after Hurricane Katrina. It would be that story of government failure repeated. 

I urge you to take strong action to avoid all of this.

Enclosed is a detailed outline of the top ongoing failures of the Corps as well as a full list of all meetings and conference calls I have had since Katrina to try to resolve these ongoing failures and related issues. Of course, I am eager to provide any other information or suggestions that would be helpful.

                                                            Sincerely,

                                                            David Vitter

CC:      Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld

            Chief of Staff Josh B. Bolten

            Chairman Donald E. Powell

            Assistant Secretary John Paul Woodley, Jr.

            Lieutenant General Carl A. Strock

Enclosures