Engineer Memoirs
LTG John Morris, Chief of Engineers; Clifford Alexander, Secretary of the Army; MG
Ernest Graves, Director of Civil Works; and President Jimmy Carter at a meeting in
February 1977 to discuss the President's "hit list" of water resource projects.
1600. This was about 1430. I said I would go home and put on a new uniform and asked if
the Secretary of the Army was involved. She said she didn't know. I asked her to check with
the secretary's office and then to call me at home if he wanted to give me any instructions.
So I went home and was changing clothes when the phone rang. The secretary said he knew
about the meeting and would like me to pick him up at 1530. We went together. On the way
over, he asked if I knew what it was all about. I said I wasn't sure, but guessed it had
something to do with the "hit list" that we'd been hearing and reading about in the paper. So
we discussed the secretary's options and his best position.
I told him that we had been trying since I was in Civil Works to get the Congress to direct
the Corps to review every one of its projects to see if they met the environmental criteria. The
idea was that we would like to get the constant hassle about previous decisions behind us so
we could dedicate our efforts to future work. I felt the hit list approval would work only if
the president asked the Congress to approve the approach.
Secretary Alexander again discussed what he should tell the president if he was asked to
comment. I recommended he tell the president that if he wants to stop projects or if he wishes
to set new criteria, that he do it in conjunction with the appropriations cycle, which would
start a couple of months henceforth and continue for a couple of months. In this manner the
subject would be aired in the Congress, and everybody would know what the president was
doing. Of course, this would delay the process several months, but he would then have a clear
shot.
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