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Jim Hannon is Chief, Operations and Regulatory Divi- sion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). He also provides leadership and oversight for activities within the USACE Lakes and Rivers and North Atlantic Regional Integration Teams. Hannon is a member of the Society of American Military Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in July 2010. After earning a bachelor?s degree in civil engineering from Mississippi State University in 1980, he began his career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a civil engineer with the Mobile District at the Lock C Resident Of ce. Since then, he has taken on increased duties and responsibilities in a variety of roles for USACE. As the Senior Executive for one of the USACE?s most important missions, Hannon is therefore the perfect choice to bring MarineNews readers up to speed on all things related to the current status of the nation?s inland rivers and the efforts to maintain and improve that infrastructure. Bring us up to speed on the size and breadth of to- day?s U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers comprises approxi- mately 36,000 civilian and 800 military employees who perform critical military missions, civil works and research and development for the Nation. We are geographically dispersed throughout the United States and OCONUS with our headquarters in Washington, D.C., nine division and 44 district of ces, six centers, two Army Reserve the- ater engineer commands and the active-duty 249th Engi- neer Battalion (Prime Power). Our OCONUS presence includes one Hawaii-based division of ce and district of-  ces located in Hawaii, Alaska, Japan, Korea, Europe and Afghanistan. In our civil works program, we are responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of much of the nation?s water resources infrastructure. This includes the work we do to maintain navigation on the inland wa- terways at our coastal ports and harbors and on the Great Lakes. It also includes the work we do to protect, restore and enhance the environment, our role as the nation?s larg- est federal provider of outdoor recreation opportunities and largest owner/operator of hydroelectric plants; projects to reduce risk to people and communities from  oods and coastal storms; water storage and supply, and our support to FEMA in responding to disasters. We are still awaiting con- gressional passage of an energy and water appropriation to fund the civil works program for  scal 2013, but in general our annual appropriation for the program is between $4.5 and $5 billion. The overall funding for the program also varies year by year based on supplemental appropriations that might come our way and by the amount of reimburs- able work that we do for other federal agencies. USACE has approximately 2,700 various vessels, including a wide variety of survey boats, dredges, patrol boats, tugboats, tow- boats, boat houses and more. Arguably, there is no more important mission in your domain than maintaining the nation?s inland water- ways. Do you have enough at the present time to get the job done?The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, like all other federal agencies, realizes that the nation is currently in an era of constrained  scal resources and that not all of the great INSIGHTSJames HannonUSACE Chief, Operations and Regulatory Division 18 MNMarch 2013 MN March2013 Layout 18-31.indd 18MN March2013 Layout 18-31.indd 183/1/2013 11:13:02 AM3/1/2013 11:13:02 AM