Southeastern Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project - another federal progam with funding diverted by the Executive Branch

New Orleans street flooding in 1995 prompted a response by Congress and the US Army Corps of Engineers. $407 million of federal and local matching funds were authorized to be spent on pumping and drainage improvement projects between 1997-2002.

By 2005 only 65% of the project work had been completed and federal funding was being withheld. Louisiana's Congressional delegation complained vociferously but the administration ignored their pleas vetoing a funding bill authorized by Congress. There was plenty of press coverage. The Corps hands were tied.

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don’t get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can’t stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn’t that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can’t raise them." Al Naomi, USACE Project Manager in June 2004 to the East Jefferson Levee Authority.

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.