FY2010 Corps of
Engineers budget outline released
Today,
the new Administration's budget outline was released for the 2010 fiscal year,
which will begin on October 1, 2009. The
information released today discusses overall funding levels for federal agencies,
including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Project-specific funding information is not expected until April. To download the Corps portion of today's
release, click here.
The
FY2010 budget outline proposes $5.1 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This is an increase over last year's budget
($4.74 billion), but still a decrease from the FY2009 omnibus bill that was
released earlier this week, which contains $5.4 billion for the Corps. However, it should be noted that the Corps
will receive an additional $4.6 billion as part of the recently enacted
stimulus package.
PNWA
is concerned about a policy proposal in the budget outline that would introduce
a new lockage fee to contribute funds to the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF). The Administration has proposed this new fee
to take the place of the existing 20 cent/gallon fuel tax paid by towboaters on
the inland waterways. The previous Bush Administration
made the same proposal in their final budget. It was rejected by the nation's
navigation industry and it did not move forward in Congress. Please see PNWA's fact sheet on why we oppose
a switch to lockage fees, available here. Although PNWA opposes lockage fees, our
membership does recognize that the IWTF is dwindling, and thus we support a
national dialogue to determine equitable stakeholder funding levels and an
appropriate funding mechanism to maintain the viability of the fund.
PNWA
staff and 65 of our members will be in Washington DC next week for our 75th
Mission to Washington, where we will be discussing FY2010 funding levels, policy
proposals, and utilization of stimulus funds with our Northwest Congressional
delegation and the leadership of the Corps of Engineers.
We
look forward to another successful year of developing the highest funding
levels possible for Northwest water projects.
Please contact us with any questions you may have.
PNWA staff contact: Kristin Meira
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