Theodore M.
been implemented. But instead, the Congress had hearings which I attended,
much later, with Bob Merriam who was the political assistant director of the
Bureau of the Budget [BOB). The hearing was chaired by Senator Kerr and
when the discussion of A-47 came up the Eisenhower administration withdrew
from it. Bob Merriam said we didn't issue this; it was done before we came
into office. Then they heard from some of the old-timers, staff people from the
Truman administration, who said, "We didn't see it before it came out. We
don't know where it came from." And this led Senator Allen Ellender to launch
into a discussion of Louisiana law which defines eight different kinds of
bastards, and he said this seems to be a ninth kind.
Q: Amazing. But would you say the general thrust of BOB Circular A-47 would
be to exclude some projects from consideration for federal construction that
otherwise would have been considered beforehand? Is that stated too strongly?
I'm talking particularly about something like the
standard project
amortization period versus the
standard project amortization period
as a justification for construction, and so forth and so on.
A: Yes, the economic standards in A-47 are much more rigorous and would
exclude some projects, but the big issue in this one was reimbursement-local
cost sharing-and if I remember right, A-47 recognizes land enhancement
value as a major local benefit which should be reimbursed by local, nonfederal
interests.
At that time the Corps was building all those projects down along the bayous
in Louisiana and Arkansas, adding them on to
Mississippi River
and Tributaries project-on which the federal government, in consideration of
the fact that the locals had put in so much money before the project was
authorized, is paying all the costs, including operation and maintenance, and
purchase of lands, easements, and rights-of-way. So, when the Boeuf and
bayous projects were added on to
with the federal government
picking up the tab on all of the costs, even though these were primarily land
reclamation projects-clearing swamps and making agricultural crop
land-there were tremendous benefits to the local landowners. Requiring local
contributions for land enhancement benefits was one of the main thrusts here
which would have had a major impact on the Corps. It was not to stop them
from doing it, but it was just to get the local contribution for land
enhancement, as well as local contribution for recreation and fish and wildlife
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