President Obama's 2013 budget proposals for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, criticized by Republicans for devoting too much to environmental efforts, will go before three committees for review this week.

Both proposals largely preserve money for key Obama administration environmental priorities.

For the Army Corps, that means ecosystem restoration -- particularly in the Everglades, by far the agency's largest environmental project. At Reclamation, that means WaterSMART, the administration's signature reuse and conservation program, and environmental restoration in drought-prone areas such as California's Central Valley and the lower Colorado River.

While Democrats play defense, expect Republicans on all three committees to push for cuts in those areas, offset by increased spending at the Army Corps on ports and inland waterways and on dams and reservoirs at Reclamation.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment will take up the Army Corps budget tomorrow morning, followed by a review Wednesday morning of the Reclamation budget by the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee. Then both agency proposals will go before the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday afternoon.

Obama requested $4.7 billion for the Army Corps in fiscal 2013, down $271 million, or 5.4 percent, from what the agency received in 2012. Reclamation would receive $1 billion under the president's request, which is largely in keeping with recent funding levels.

House Republicans have called on Reclamation to begin a new era of dam and reservoir construction, rather than pursue conservation programs that they deem insufficient solutions to the water shortage problem.

"There are limits to what conservation can do to address these shortages," Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said at a February hearing of the House Natural Resources Water and Power Subcommittee that he chairs (E&E Daily, Feb. 8). "Handing out grants for toilet exchanges and rock gardens isn't going to meet the next generation's needs."

Democrats have countered that Republican-backed federal spending caps established last year make significant construction projects an impossibility.

"Last year, you cut the budgets," Rep. John Garamendi (R-Calif.) said at the same hearing. "You can't expect these projects to go forward if you cut the budgets."

Similarly, industry critics and their congressional allies have blamed the administration for not spending enough on inland waterway and port maintenance -- a prerequisite, they say, to achieving Obama's stated goal of doubling exports by 2015.

As if in response to this criticism, the administration proposed a budget that spent more on navigation, as a share of the budget, than on either of the Army Corps' two other key mission areas: flood control and environmental restoration. Navigation would receive 37 percent of the agency's budget, compared to 33 percent for environmental restoration and 30 percent for flood control.

Waterway industry officials say that falls far short of meeting the $8 billion in lock and dam maintenance and construction needs alone (Greenwire, Feb. 15).

To boost spending in that area, the administration has proposed raising taxes on barge shippers so as to generate $1 billion in new revenue over the coming decade. Industry has a competing plan that calls for a much smaller tax increase on fuel, which will take the form of a bill to be introduced by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) next week (E&E Daily, March 23).

Schedule: The House Transportation subcommittee's Army Corps budget hearing is tomorrow at 10 a.m. in 2167 Rayburn.

Witnesses: TBA.

Schedule: The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee's Reclamation budget hearing is Wednesday, March 28, at 10 a.m. in 2362-B Rayburn.

Witness: Michael Connor, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.

Schedule: Both budgets will be reviewed by the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday, March 28, at 2:30 p.m. in 192 Dirksen.

Witnesses: TBA.