May 2018

MISSISSIPPI

RIVER

COMMISSION

HISTORY

CURRENT COMMISSIONERS

Maj. Gen. Richard G. Kaiser

President

Corps of Engineers

Mississippi Valley Division

Vicksburg, Miss.

Honorable Sam E. Angel

Senior Civilian Member

Lake Village, Ark.

James A. Reeder

Civilian/Civil Engineer

Memphis, Tenn.

Honorable Norma Jean Mattei, Ph.D.

Civilian/Civil Engineer

Houma, La.

RDML Shepard Smith

National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration

Silver Spring, Md.

Brig. Gen. R. Mark Toy

Corps of Engineers

Great Lakes & Ohio River Division

Cincinnati, Ohio

Brig. Gen. Paul E. Owen

Corps of Engineers

Southwestern Division

Dallas, Texas
The legally mandated membership of the 

MRC called for three officers from the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers, one member from 

the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (now the 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration), and three civilians - each 

nominated by the President and confirmed by 

the Senate. 

This mix of membership reflected a 

national desire to mend a growing rift 

between the military and civilian engineering 

communities epitomized during the early 

1870s through the between 

Brig. Gen. Andrew A. 

Humphreys, the Chief of 

Engineers, and James B. Eads, 

the internationally renowned 

civilian engineer and original 

member of the Mississippi 

River Commission.

The MRC has a proud heritage that dates 

back to 1879, when Congress established the 

seven-member commission to remake the 

Mississippi River into a reliable commercial 

artery while protecting adjacent farms and 

towns from its powerful floods. 

Today the MRC has largely realized its 

ambitious assignment through the 

prosecution of the comprehensive river 

management program known as the 

Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) 

project - a project brought about by the 

greatest flood in recorded history of the lower 

Mississippi River. 

Early dike works

Early levee 

construction

41%

of U.S.

Brig. Gen. Andrew 

A. Humphreys

James B. Eads

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The Great Flood of 1927 drove 700,000 

people from their homes, inundated 26,000 

square miles, and forced an overhaul of the 

flood control plan for the lower Mississippi 

River. 

The MR&T project is arguably the most 

successful civil works project ever 

undertaken. Since the initiation of the 

project, the nation has invested a total of 

$15.5 billion, with damages prevented 

reaching $1 trillion by the end of 2017. 

The 1879 congressional 

legislation that created the MRC 

granted the body extensive authority 

and jurisdiction on the Mississippi 

River from its headwaters at Lake Itasca, 

Minnesota, to the Head of Passes near the 

Gulf of Mexico.
While there were many reasons for creating 

the MRC, one of the most pressing issues 

involved the need for federal assistance for the 

flood-plagued Mississippi Valley. For decades 

the national legislature had toyed with the 

concept of federalizing flood-control efforts, 

but opponents to such a move argued that 

protecting private property from overflow at 

federal expense was unconstitutional. 

These arguments consistently won the day, 

therefore, flood control remained a function of 

the individual states. In response, local 

interests at the state and county level organized 

levee districts. These insufficiently financed 

efforts, however, lacked centralized 

coordination and mostly proved inadequate 

because, as noted by James P. Kemper, a 

longtime student of the Mississippi River, 

“floodwaters will not respect political 

boundaries.”

Public 

meetings, 

then . . . 

and now

With the establishment of the MRC, the 

federal government finally appeared as an 

active agent on the river capable of 

transcending the regional issues that had 

hampered the development of a more 

effective flood-control system.

Shortly after its creation, the MRC began 

coordinating local efforts, setting standards 

for levee construction, and allocating funds to 

the cash-strapped levee districts. 

In that process of face-to-face interaction 

and open dialogue, the MRC evolved into a 

springboard for Mississippi Valley interests to 

have a greater voice in shaping federal policy -

a vehicle that continues to operate to this day 

through semi-annual high- and low-water 

inspection trips each spring and fall. 

Since 1882, these inspection trips and 

public meetings have been conducted aboard 

vessels named Mississippi. 

The current vessel, Motor Vessel MISSISSIPPI V, 

has been in use since 1993.

In fact, it can be argued that the practice 

of addressing issues and concerns through 

the formal public hearing process, so critical 

in the federal government's civil works 

mission today, began in the Mississippi Valley 

with the creation of the MRC. 

1939 MRC 

members.

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