The Obama administration proposed slashing fiscal 2012 funding for the Army Corps of Engineers by about 17 percent over 2010 levels, with the deepest cuts hitting construction projects and programs for the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

The proposal would give the corps $4.6 billion, down $913 million from fiscal 2010, the last year Congress passed a complete federal budget. The proposal is 6 percent smaller than the corps' spending in the still-unsettled 2011 fiscal year, as Congress continues to fund the government through a series of resolutions.

The corps' construction budget would take a 27 percent hit under Obama's plan, dropping from $2.02 billion to $1.48 billion. Money for Mississippi River programs -- primarily flood control and dredging -- would be cut 39 percent, from $342 million in fiscal 2010 to $210 million in fiscal 2012.

President Obama's proposal represented a change of course, said David Conrad, senior water resources specialist at the National Wildlife Federation.

"It would reverse a trend of increases in total outlays over the last few years considerably," Conrad said.

The administration highlights cuts to "duplicative and lower-priority programs," including local water and wastewater treatment programs, in budget documents made public today. Money will instead go toward water-infrastructure projects "that produce high economic and environmental returns" and that address public safety needs, the proposal said.

The Army Corps's proposal directs $1.5 billion for "high-return" construction in flood- and storm-damage reduction, commercial navigation, aquatic ecosystem restoration and hydropower.

Several environmental programs were spotlighted by the administration proposal: the California Bay-Delta, the Everglades, the Great Lakes and the Gulf Coast restorations.

The administration characterized the restoration programs as regional economic engines.

Busy inland waterways will also receive money under the proposal. Money will also be directed to assessing the impacts of climate change, funding modeling, monitoring, adaption and mitigation programs for rising seas.

The administration also pledged to increase taxes that feed the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and expand its authorized use so that the money could be used to pay the federal share of navigation projects, according to the budget documents.