House subcommittee releases FY2012 energy & water appropriations bill
PNWA staff contact: Kristin Meira
Last Thursday, the House Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee held a hearing and released their FY2012 funding bill for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and Department of Energy. The 2012 federal fiscal year begins on October 1, 2011.
The House proposes overall funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of $4.768B, an $88M reduction from FY2011 enacted levels, but a $195M increase over the Administration's FY2012 budget. Corps funding appears to be on a downward trend; $5.4B was appropriated for the Corps by Congress for FY2010. It should be noted that other agencies included in the bill saw much steeper cuts. Department of Energy would face a nearly $6B cut, from $30.683B in the budget down to $24.740B in the House bill. Bureau of Reclamation would be cut from $1.051B in the budget down to $934M.
Within the Corps of Engineers, the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) account would largely remain intact, with a proposed $2.366B in funding, roughly the same as what was in the budget, and similar to FY2011 and FY2010 spending levels. The majority of PNWA's supported navigation projects are in O&M. The stable funding level for O&M plus some work PNWA is doing to increase funding for shallower ports make us optimistic for FY2012.
The Construction account would receive a slight boost, with the House proposing $1.565B versus $1.480B in the budget. However, this is still roughly $500M less than the $2B provided by Congress in FY2010.
The General Investigations (GI) account would be the same as the budget level, at $104M. $126M was provided for GI in FY2011, and $160M in FY2010.
The bill does not contain tables reflecting funding levels for individual Corps projects. The Committee intends to provide general pots of money to the Corps for navigation and flood control projects, then give the Corps 45 days to deliver and justify their spending plan, similar to the "work plan" exercise recently completed by the Corps for FY2011. This bill is expected to be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee in the next month, with more detailed report language anticipated at that time.
PNWA's FY2012 navigation funding document is available at www.pnwa.net. PNWA's document will continue to be updated when the Senate creates its bill, as well as any changes provided by regional Corps officials regarding navigation capabilities at projects our members support.
We look forward to another successful year of partnership with the Northwest Congressional delegation, Corps Headquarters, the Northwestern Division and the Portland, Seattle and Walla Walla Districts in working to achieve the highest funding levels possible for Northwest water projects. Please contact us with any questions you may have.
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