When Boatloads of Federal Money Attack ~Mike Church~In 1817, President James Madison vetoed(1) Henry Clay and John C Calhoun’s “Bonus Bill” which would have given the Federal Government funding and authority to begin building levees, canals and roads. In his veto Madison wrote “The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated, and it does not appear that the power for constructing canals, and improving the navigation of water courses… is among the enumerated powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States.”
If only Madison had been around in 1858 to stop Congress from siccing the Corps of Engineers on the levees of the Mississippi River(2), LSU would have a million more dollars and professor Ivor van Heerden might still be employed there. You see, after Katrina, van Heerden, as deputy director of LSU’s Hurricane Center looked into the levees that failed and concluded there was “catastrophic structural failure”, this after warning(3) in 2003 that the city was doomed if the right storm surge hit her.