Washington, DC — Taxpayers for Common Sense would like to applaud Congressman Tancredo for his leadership and defense of taxpayers in introducing this bill to reform the Army Corps of Engineers. It's no wonder that we named him a Treasury Guardian in our Taxpayer Scorecard this year.

After a year of distortion and outright deceit by the Corps of Engineers, Congressman Tancredo and others are attempting to reign in this out-of-control agency. The Corps of Engineers has attempted to block reform at every turn. They operate under the principle that 'pork is king' in this town and that any Member who wants to get a ditch, dam or dike will walk lockstep with this agency and other politicians greedy to bring home the bacon. If you have any doubts, go watch the pork parade that will occur in that building later this afternoon. In fact, the House has already reversed a common sense spending reduction by the Bush Administration and has increased the Corps budget by more than a half billion dollars

The Tancredo bill would rain on that parade. It does this in several ways: First, by working to more fully integrate the public into Corps planning through public hearings. Second by increasing the transparency and believability of Corps studies by incorporating strong independent, I want to stress that, independent, review and increasing public access to information. And finally by forcing the Corps to incorporate new management and criteria for Corps projects.

The Tancredo bill isn't radical surgery; it merely is a set of common sense policy reforms that should be adopted. Congress has two choices, they can either continue the waste, fraud and abuse at the Corps, or members can join Congressman Tancredo and others in efforts to reform the Corps of Engineers.