Full House Appropriations Committee Approves FY 2005 Funding for Corps of Engineers
Committee Bests President’s Budget Request by $800 Million
The House Appropriations Committee blessed, a $28 billion Energy and Water spending bill yesterday. The measure provides a total of $28.0 billion in new discretionary spending authority for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Civil, the Department of Interior including the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Energy, and several Independent Agencies. The total bill is $734.5 million above fiscal year 2004 and $49.6 million above the President’s budget request.

As previously reported, the measure reported by the Energy and Water Subcommittee supports a vigorous Civil Works program. The Corps of Engineers received $4.83 billion dollars for FY 2005. That recommendation is well nearly $800 million over the President’s budget request for FY 2005. This is a huge step forward by the Congress is meeting its commitments to our Nation’s waterways. Here is how the Corps budget is broken down:

	FY 04 Enacted	FY 05 Request	FY 05 House Recommended	Difference from FY 05 Request & House FY 05	Percent Increase from FY04 Enacted & House FY 05	Reduction for Savings and Slippage
General Investigations	$116,259,000	$90,500,000	$149,000,000	$58,500,000	28.16%	14.8%
Construction - General	$1,712,157,000	$1,421,500,000	$1,876,680,000	$455,180,000	9.6%	1.8%
O&M	$1,965,314,000	$1,931,000,000	$1,982,000,000	$16,686,000	0.8%	0.73%
Flood Control, Mississippi River & Tributaries	$322,309,000	$270,000,000	$325,000,000	$55,000,000	17%	8.2%

In addition to the significant increases the Committee approved over the lower Administration requests, it is important to note the dramatically lower figures posted for "savings and slippage." This figure, which was recently as high as 30 percent in some categories, increases the amount of funding directly available to the Corps. "Savings and slippage" is a factor traditionally utilized to allow for anticipated "savings" due to "slippage" in construction timeframe. This also unfortunately served to limit the real dollars made available to projects. The decreases in savings and slippage essentially fully funds most Civil Works projects for FY 05.

Some of the biggest project winners include the following:

• Oakland Harbor – $35 million
• Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lock, LA - $20 million
• McAlpine L&D - $80 million;
• Kentucky L&D: $45 million;
• Ohio Environmental Infrastructure - $22 million;
• L&D 2, 3, & 4 – Monongahela River, PA - $42 million
• Houston – Gavelston Navigation Channels, TX - $24 million
• Marmet Lock, WV - $70 million;
• Flood Control Projects (Section 205) - $25 million

In its Report, the Committee clearly took several swipes at the Administration and the Office of Management and Budget for it’s "absence of…leadership" on the issue of the Corps Civil Works program and rejected the overall structure of the significantly weak funding proposals for FY 05.

Given the limited resources available for FY 2005, the Committee adopted several priorities to guide its decisions for FY 2005. They include: funding the operation, maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation portions of the Civil Works Program; completing ongoing projects already under construction; completing ongoing studies that will yield the greatest economic benefits for the nation and the highest possible return on taxpayer investment; and, fulfill prior commitments made to local sponsor, including beach nourishment projects.

To ensure better planning, the Committee also directed the Corps of Engineers to prepare and submit a comprehensive five-year budget plan for the Civil Works program beginning in FY 2006.

The House is moving fast on its spending bills, and the Energy and Water measure is expected to be considered by the full House next week. The Senate is working on their bill, but has not yet scheduled Committee action. [ return to top ]