I’m working on a longer post on re-building New Orleans but I did want to get this word in. Congress either needs to fund the Army Corps of Engineers sufficiently to fulfill its mandate to maintain the levees on the Mississippi or it needs to absolve the Corps of that responsibility and allow the responsibility to devolve completely to the states. Straddling the issue is irresponsible.
Look forward to it. My quick take on the Corps: The Corps needs to be removed from development projects and restricted to interstate navigation and related flood protection. The Corps also needs its role re-examined. It is not simply a technical agency, its decisions have inherent policy implications which should be made or actively overseen by policy-makers. Nor is its technical expertise understood without understanding the relationship between engineering and science.
If you’re looking for reading material, may I recommend “Can We Save New Orleans?â€
http://www.law.tulane.edu/tlsjournals/enviro/index.aspx?id=4354