Corpse loses control in Senate bill.

Senate OKs slap at corps in bill aimed at aiding La.:

"Added to the bill was a provision offered by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to require outside experts to review every project of more than $40 million for engineering design, costs and environmental consequences. Similar proposals have been defeated in the past, but the engineering failures blamed for the collapse of levees that flooded 80 percent of New Orleans after Katrina put pressure on senators to approve more than cosmetic changes in the corps. The amendment won in a 54-46 vote.

'While any hurricane that makes landfall will leave some level of destruction behind, the country has been shocked to learn that there were engineering flaws in the New Orleans levees and that important information was ignored by the corps,' Feingold said. Had independent review been required before Katrina, 'much of the flooding possibly could have been averted' because the levee flaws could have uncovered in time for correction."