Administration’s FY 17 Budget Drastically Slashes Civil Works Funding
The Obama Administration proposed a FY 17 budget that would cut the Army Corps of Engineers’ civil works funding by 22 percent, leveling a devastating blow to the nation’s critical water resources infrastructure.
Just weeks after the Congress wrapped up an omnibus funding bill for FY 16 that provided $5.9 billion, the White House put forward a budget of $4.6 billion, a number that would surely result in the shutdown of critical investments in the nation’s infrastructure if it weren’t largely viewed as dead on arrival.
Operation and maintenance funding would decrease 14% to $2.7 billion, while construction would be cut from $1.86 billion to $1.1 billion. The Mississippi River and Tributaries project would be slashed from $345 million to $222 million, and Investigations would similarly be cut from $121 million to $85 million. The regulatory program would remain constant at $200 million.
Funding for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund misses the target by a wide margin, at $951 million, compared to $1.2 billion in FY 16. Nor does the Inland Waterways Trust Fund see full expenditure, with only the Olmsted project receiving construction funding, with just over $33 million coming from the trust fund. The budget also proposes a new user fee to increase trust fund revenues and proposes that a percentage go towards maintenance.
The FY 16 work plans were also released and of the additional $1.3 billion appropriated by the Congress, $677 million went to navigation and $434 million was allocated to flood risk management, with the remainder to other authorized purposes.
Full details of the budget and work plans can be viewed here: http://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/Budget.aspx 