Theodore
A: That's what I remember and so each year the Corps came in and asked for
money and each year the Bureau of the Budget turned them down. And I
shouldn't say "each year," because I was only there for four years, but we did
turn them down. Then the Congress finally put in
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million to start the
project, and the Corps started by buying some land and building an access
road, or something like that, the way they would do, and started the design.
When that came up in the budget for the second year of construction in the
budget, and the Corps was asking for million, the way the construction
progression goes:
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million, million, million, 0 million. This
became a policy issue. Should we continue this project? We didn't think it was
economically sound, I should say the staff didn't think it was economically
sound, and it had been started in opposition to the Eisenhower no new start
policy. It was felt that the only way you could hold this program within the
budget was to eliminate any new starts. The total Corps program at that time
was about 0 to 0 million, but the Corps program plus the Bureau
program and the SCS program amounted to maybe 2 percent of the budget,
which is a lot bigger share of the budget than it is now. That was before the
social security trust fund was incorporated into the budget.
So a policy decision was made on the second year of construction on the
Arkansas Waterway. We just zero budgeted it, and, of course, that was in the
budget that went up to the Congress. I think the Congress put it back in, and
the Corps continued the work.
And then I recall that in the third year there was a big meeting in the White
House at which I wasn't present but Senator Kerr came in-probably with
Senator John McClellan and a lot of power from the Hill, plus a lot of local
people-and they met with the President himself. I'm not sure whether
Sherman Adams had been released at that time or not. You remember the
Vicuna Coat scandal?
Yes.
A: Anyway, after the White House meeting, we got the word that from then on we
were going to fund the project. I don't know about this deal with the highway
interests that you speak of. I've told you all that I can remember about my
involvement with the Arkansas Waterway which was that we recommended
against it as long as we could.
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