Administration releases FY2012 Corps of Engineers budget
PNWA staff contact: Kristin Meira
Today, the Administration released its budget proposal for the 2012 fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2011. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposed to receive $4.631B, nearly $200M below the Administration's proposal for FY2011, and nearly $800M below the $5.4B appropriated for the Corps by Congress for FY2010. The Operations & Maintenance (O&M) account would largely remain intact, with a proposed $2.3B in funding, roughly the same as what was appropriated in FY2010. However, the Construction account would face a significant reduction, with only $1.48B proposed for FY2012, as compared to $2B provided by Congress in FY2010. The General Investigations (GI) account would also be reduced, from $160M enacted in FY2010 to $104M in FY2012. The budget also includes $50M, a $40M increase, for a comprehensive levee safety initiative to help ensure that federal levees are safe, and to assist non-federal parties to address safety issues with their levees.
Following are the President's proposed spending levels for specific projects that are supported by PNWA's membership:
Construction (CG)
Lower Columbia River ecosystem restoration, OR/WA - $4,500,000
Mt. St. Helens sediment control, WA - $6,500,000
Columbia River Fish Mitigation (CRFM) - $128,405,000
General Investigations (GI)
Elliott Bay Seawall, WA study (Port of Seattle) - 0
Humboldt Bay Long-Term Shoal Management, CA feasibility study - 0
Puyallup River flood damage reduction study - 0
Operations & Maintenance - Deep Draft
Columbia & Lower Willamette below Vancouver & Portland (C&LW), OR/WA - $24,378,000
Columbia River at the Mouth (MCR), OR/WA - $12,857,000
Columbia River between Vancouver & The Dalles, OR/WA - $693,000
Coos Bay (Port of Coos Bay), OR - $4,793,000
Humboldt Harbor & Bay (Port of Humboldt Bay, CA) - $2,800,000
Lake Washington Ship Canal, WA - $10,553,000
Seattle Harbor, WA - $4,240,000
Skipanon Channel (Port of Astoria), OR - 0
Willamette River environmental dredging, OR - $250,000
Yaquina Bay & Harbor (Port of Newport), OR - $1,962,000
Operations & Maintenance - Shallow Draft
Columbia River at Baker Bay (Port of Ilwaco) - 0
Columbia River b/t Chinook & Sand Island (Port of Chinook) - 0
Siuslaw River (Port of Siuslaw) - $551,000
Yaquina River (Port of Toledo) - 0
Swinomish Channel (Port of Skagit County) - 0
Tillamook Bay & Bar (Port of Garibaldi) - 0
Umpqua River (Port of Umpqua) - 0
Operations & Maintenance - Inland Locks
Bonneville Lock & Dam - $6,640,000
The Dalles Lock & Dam - $3,236,000
John Day Lock & Dam - $4,394,000
McNary Lock & Dam - $5,309,000
Ice Harbor Lock & Dam - $3,734,000
Lower Monumental Lock & Dam - $2,172,000
Little Goose Lock & Dam - $2,062,000
Lower Granite Lock & Dam - $2,823,000
Today and tomorrow, PNWA staff will be meeting with the Corps' Portland, Walla Walla, Seattle, and San Francisco Districts to better understand the proposed budget levels, and what they would mean for navigation and ecosystem restoration projects in the Northwest. PNWA's FY2012 Navigation Projects document will be finalized and released to the Northwest Congressional delegation and posted to our website by the end of this week.
Besides the suggested FY2012 spending amounts for the Corps, the budget also contained notable policy suggestions. With regard to the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF), the Administration intends to "work with Congress to reform the laws governing the IWTF, including increasing the revenue paid by commercial navigation users sufficiently to meet their share of the costs of activities financed from this trust fund." For the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF), the budget language notes that "legislation will be proposed to significantly expand the authorized uses of the HMTF so that its receipts are available to finance the federal share of efforts carried out by several agencies in support of commercial navigation through the Nation's ports." Only $691M in receipts are designated for coastal O&M in this budget; the HMTF usually takes in twice that amount each year. PNWA staff will be gathering details of both of these policy proposals, and will report on them to the membership.
PNWA staff contact: Kristin Meira