President's Fiscal Year 2004 Civil Works Budget Released

2/3/2003

From: Eugene Pawlik, 202-761-0014, Eugene.A.Pawlik.LTC@usace.army.mil or Dave Hewitt, 202-761-0289, David.W.Hewitt@usace.army.mil, both of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 -- The Fiscal Year (FY) 2004 budget transmitted to Congress today includes $4.194 billion in new federal funding for the Civil Works program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Les Brownlee said, "The Civil Works budget for Fiscal Year 2004 continues the approach taken in Civil Works budgets of the past two years. The focus is on prioritizing funds to complete or make significant progress on ongoing work to provide the highest value to the Nation."

The budget proposes that the funding for FY 04 be used to continue development and restoration of the Nation's water and related resources, operation and maintenance of existing federally-owned water resources projects, protection of the Nation's waters and wetlands, and restoration of sites contaminated as a result of the Nation's early atomic weapons development program.

The budget consists of $2.947 billion from the general fund, $812 million from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, $256 million from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, $34 million from Special Recreation Use Fees, and, under proposed legislation, $145 million from direct financing of hydropower operation and maintenance costs by three federal power marketing administrations.

President's Fiscal Year 2004 Civil Works budget released/2-2-2 The new federal funding will be distributed as follows among appropriation accounts:

-- $1.939 billion for Operation and Maintenance -- $1.350 billion for Construction -- $280 million for Flood Control, Mississippi River and Tributaries -- $171 million for General Expenses -- $144 million for the Regulatory Program -- $140 million for the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program -- $100 million for General Investigations -- $70 million for Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies

Additional program funding is estimated at $494 million, including $143 million from the Bonneville Power Administration for operation and maintenance of hydropower facilities in the Pacific Northwest and $278 million from non-federal interests for their shares of project costs and project-related work.

The balance of funding needed to complete the budgeted construction projects is an estimated $23 billion. In recent years, these projects have had to compete for funding with numerous new construction starts. To maximize the net benefits of the construction program and realize those benefits more quickly than under current trends, the budget emphasizes projects that are nearing completion, limits funding for the planning and design of new projects, redirects funding from projects that are inconsistent with long-established policies, provides funding to complete 13 ongoing projects in FY 2004, and provides substantial funding for eight projects that are the highest priorities in the Nation. The high priority projects are the New York and New Jersey Harbor deepening project ($115 million); the Olmsted Locks and Dam, IL & KY, project ($73 million); projects to restore the Florida Everglades ($145 million) and the side channels of the Upper Mississippi River system ($33 million); projects to provide flood damage reduction to urban areas, namely, the Sims Bayou, Houston, TX, project ($12 million) and the West Bank and Vicinity, New Orleans, LA, project ($35 million); and projects to meet environmental requirements in the Columbia River Basin ($98 million) and the Missouri River basin ($22 million).

In the Operation and Maintenance program, the budget gives priority to key infrastructure and emphasizes facility security. The budget also limits funding for operation and maintenance of shallow draft harbors and low commercial-use waterways, provides no funds for purely recreational harbors, and proposes a study of long-term options for low commercial-use navigation facilities. The budget also proposes that federal power marketing administrations directly finance the operation and maintenance costs of Corps of Engineers hydropower facilities, including $145 million for this purpose in FY 2004.

Five new studies that emphasize watershed-based approaches to water resources problems are proposed for the General Investigations Program.

Over recent years, both the Inland Waterways Trust Fund and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund have built up substantial unused balances. The budget proposes to expand the authorized uses of these trust funds. The Inland Waterways Trust Fund would be used to finance 25 to 50 percent of operation and maintenance costs for inland waterways, in addition to the currently authorized financing for 50 percent of construction costs. For coastal harbors, the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund would be used to finance the Federal share of construction costs, in addition to the currently authorized financing for the Federal share of operation and maintenance costs.

In the Mississippi River and Tributaries program, the budget gives priority to flood damage reduction projects on the main stem of the Mississippi River and in the Atchafalaya River basin, Louisiana.

The budget for the Regulatory Program enables continued efforts to reduce the average review time for individual permit applications, improve protection of aquatic resources, and strengthen protection of regulated wetlands through watershed approaches.

The Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies Program is budgeted $70 million to respond to major flood and storm emergencies. Although this amount is a significant increase from prior years' budgets, it represents the average annual cost for this program, and reduces the likelihood of the need to borrow from other accounts.

The budget supports the President's Management Agenda and includes management measures to enhance the performance of Civil Works programs. These measures include improving economic models, realigning planning expertise, independent review of project proposals, and post-facto analyses of completed projects.

The mission of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the world's preeminent public engineering agency, is to provide quality, responsive engineering services to the Nation and its armed forces. The Corps plans, designs, builds and operates water resources projects; designs and manages military facilities construction for the Army and Air Force at home and abroad; provides design and construction management support for other Defense and federal agencies; cleans hazardous areas across the Nation through the Formerly Used Defense Sites program and the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program; and conducts state of the art engineering research and design at its Engineer Research and Development Center.

The FY 2004 Civil Works budget information, including a state-by-state breakdown, is available on the Corps' World Wide Web site: http://www.usace.army.mil/civilworks/cecwb/budget.