Department of Defense, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works)

Department/Agency: Department of Defense

Position:

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works

Executive Schedule: Executive Level IV - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation

Major Responsibilities:

• Civilian chief of the Army Corps of Engineers 
• Oversees national water resources, including the Army Civil Works budget  and use of U.S. waters 
• Deals with Congressional oversight and appropriations committees on water projects and other civil works
• Supervises the Arlington National Cemetery and the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery
• Coordinates civil works projects in foreign countries, including reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan

Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in environmental protection
• Familiarity with emergency management
• Extensive project management background

Insight:
Hurricane Katrina exposed major weaknesses in national infrastructure and emergency response.  

Former Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Parker was forced out of office in 2002 for publicly saying that funding of civil works projects was inadequate. Later, after Hurricane Katrina, he blamed the continued lack of federal investment in infrastructure for the extent of that 2005 storm's devastation. "You have watched during a period of 72 hours a modern city of New Orleans [become] a Third World country and it is all because of the disintegration of infrastructure," Parker told the Washington Post. "Everybody is to blame — it transcends administrations. It transcends party."
 The next civilian head of the Army Corps of Engineers must address continued concerns about national infrastructure while adhering to a fiscally responsible budget. He or she is responsible for developing projects (and wading through a backlog of stalled projects) that will reduce flood storm damage, facilitate commercial navigation and restore aquatic ecosystems.

Investing in Infrastructure

Infrastructure worries have taken on national prominence as concerns mount over crumbling levees, bridges and roads.

The National Association of Governors made infrastructure their annual theme — and made headlines as such governors as New York's David Paterson (D) Pennsylvania's Ed Rendell (D) took the federal government to task for tight-fisted funding of needed upgrades and replacements.

"If we are to fully meet this challenge we will need our federal partners to step up and make this a greater priority," Rendell said as he took over the chairmanship of the NGA in July 2008.

Each hurricane season provides a new test of the progress of the Army Corps of Engineers and Parker’s successor, John Woodley.

Going Green

The Army civil works program is not immune to the increasing popular demand for environmental sustainability.

“The country today seeks economic development as well as the protection of environment values,” according to an Office of Management and Budget summary report on the Army Corps of Engineers. “The Corps is now demonstrating that it is possible to have both if we proceed responsibly.”

That 2005 report outlined the major challenge ahead: “A concerted effort by this Administration and the Congress is needed to ensure that the ongoing and future efforts of the Corps are environmentally sustainable, economically responsible and fiscally sound. Achieving this goal will require a transformation in cultural attitudes. That needed change has begun both in how the Corps approaches its work, and in the way the Congress authorizes and funds the projects of the civil works program.”

This growing emphasis on balancing ecological responsibility with business development interests plays out in civil works projects to preserve and restore natural resources like the Everglades, as well as the regulation of development projects to mitigate ecological harm.

Serving the Armed Services

Oversight of domestic civil works projects have armed the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works with the kind of expertise highly sought after in other parts of the world as well.

The next appointee will continue Woodley’s work in assisting the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan and other international trouble spots.

Key Relationships – Within the Government:
Environmental Protection Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
State and local emergency management agencies
Office of Management and Budget

Key Relationships – Outside the Government:

Private architectural, engineering and construction firms

Nomination Referred to:

Senate Committee on Armed Services

Current Position Profile:
1. Jo-Ellen Darcy (Confirmed: Aug 7, 2009). Former Senior Professional Staff Member/Senior Policy Advisor, Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate.

Recent Position Profiles:

2. John Paul Woodley, Jr., J.D. (2005- 2009). Former principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for civil works. Former assistant deputy under secretary of defense for the environment and secretary of natural resources for governor of Virginia. Also served as assistant secretary of the army for civil works as a recess appointee from 2003-2004.

3. Mike Parker, BA (2001-2002). Former funeral home operator and congressman from Mississippi Forced out of the Pentagon post after criticizing the administration's budget. In Congress, served on the appropriations subcommittee that funds the Army Corps of Engineers. Now a lobbyist.