Starve the beast -- the beast is us

The Times-Picayune:

Longtime corps observers say that as its priorities have changed in the past generation and outsourcing has become more prevalent, the corps has lost many engineers to private industry and become a less desirable place for up-and-coming engineers to work.

Its budgets have been cut in recent years, and officials have struggled to maintain long-term efforts such as basic operations and maintaining projects.

"The corps has not been able to attract the talent necessary to adequately design and supervise the design and construction of the facilities they are charged with building," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a fiscal watchdog group that monitors the corps. "That's a critical shortcoming for an agency that used to be the gold standard in design and construction."