Can Happy Subjects Have an Enlightened Despot? Customer Satisfaction Among Army Corps Permit Applicants

Justice Antonin Scalia has described the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permitting process as overly burdensome and inefficient. Yet empirical data gathered from Corps Customer Service Surveys do not bear out this assessment. Results from these surveys, as well as the apparent disconnect between applicant experiences and the public’s negative perception of the permitting process, are described below.