Editorial: Stimulus Stalled By Bureaucracy

The puzzlement of all puzzlements is that while nation’s unemployment figures continue to rise, bureaucracy is stalling many jobs that were supposed to be created by the stimulus bill. One critic said they are in “bureaucratic purgatory.” In the meantime, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee reported on March 27 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had submitted a proposed project list of potential American Recovery and Reinvestment Act civil works projects to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. Waterways leaders are understandably fidgety about why nothing is happening. The stimulus act is supposed to provide $4.6 billion for civil works.

Working from a list of priority projects for which planning is complete, the Corps included projects that are “shovel ready.” The Corps said at the time that the contracts could have been let in very short order. So why has this stimulus program not been more efficient?

That is not to say that nothing at all has happened. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on April 6 that, as part of the $28 billion it is getting from the stimulus package, it would distribute $45 million to 11 states to finance flood-control projects. The 27 projects are expected to create 1,000 jobs. The states are Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. In these cases, state and local governments provide 35 percent of the funding. Fully $20 billion of what the USDA received, however, goes to food assistance. The rest reportedly will be spent for infrastructure, rural development and broadband expansion.

While the Corps’ list of suggested civil works projects goes begging for $4.6 billion, the government has handed out more than $500 billion in TARP funds to financial institutions in a scheme critics believe will lead only to the need for more.

The potential for job creation, infrastructure improvement and modernization lies everywhere.

We’re biased toward waterways, but the amount of money for civil works is so miniscule that there should be no cause for delay. According to the April 13 newsletter of The American Waterways Operators, the Corps’ project list has not been disclosed publicly. But “upon approval of OMB, the Corps will issue funds to the executing divisions and districts to initiate the selected contracting actions.” It is understood from Corps pronouncements that “the projects will be geographically distributed across the U.S. and across Corps programs to provide the nation with improvements to inland and coastal navigation, environmental restoration, flood risk management, hydropower, and recreation.”

As late as April 15, a Corps congressional liaison spokesperson told the staff of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that “the Corps is still waiting to hear back from OMB about the project list that was submitted.” As the senator’s office explained it, “OMB is saying that their submission was missing something, so they are trying to correct that problem, and currently they have no firm date of when to expect notification.”

We don’t know exactly what the obstacle is that blocks the path to progress in this civil works project issue, but if Congress can pass a $700-billion-plus stimulus package almost overnight without reading it, the OMB can surely act to speed this important activity along. Unfortunately there is a rumor circulating in Washington that the figures may not be released until the first week in May.

Even Pandora would have to work hard to top this feat!

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