When Bureaucracy Forgets Its Mission at Table Rock Lake

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) clearly states its mission on its website: “Deliver vital engineering solutions, in collaboration with our partners, to secure our Nation, energize our economy, and reduce disaster risk.”  

Southwest Missouri understands that mission. We rely on water-resources management, flood control, and responsible stewardship. What families around Table Rock Lake have struggled to understand is why the Corps’ Little Rock District spent the last year acting as if its purpose was to create uncertainty for homeowners who have lived in good faith on this lake for decades.

As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, I work directly on the policy and oversight framework that governs the Corps’ civil-works mission. When Congress passed the Water Resources Development Act in December 2024, we did it to bring clarity and fairness.  

Yet that is not what many Table Rock residents experienced. The Little Rock District applied a narrow interpretation of the law and pushed enforcement actions that treated longstanding property uses like sudden violations. Families were told to remove structures that had existed for years and, in some cases, decades, even when they could point to documentation and satellite imagery showing the history.

That is not what Missourians consider reasonable government. It is red tape with real consequences. It is stress for retirees. It is uncertainty for working families. It is the sense that the rules can change at any moment and that the burden always falls on the citizen.

I did not come to Washington to watch unelected bureaucracy rewrite congressional intent in practice. For months, I elevated these cases and pressed for a course correction. I met with senior Army and Corps leadership and kept pushing because the people who live on this lake deserve to be treated with consistency and respect, not subjected to shifting interpretations and district-level stonewalling.

That is why recent action by the Trump administration matters. Leadership changes in the Little Rock District and direct engagement from senior civilian leaders are long-overdue signals that entrenched bureaucracy will not be rewarded and that public service still means serving the public.

This is not about ignoring the law. It is about following the law as Congress wrote it and applying it with common-sense. Agencies do not get to substitute their preferences for legislative intent, especially when families’ homes and savings are on the line.

There is still work ahead. Missouri families are simply asking the Corps to stay within its mission and not abuse its regulatory power. I will stay engaged until Table Rock Lake residents have durable clarity and fair treatment.