President Obama today requested $4.7 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers in fiscal 2013, down $271 million, or 5.4 percent, from what the agency received last year.

The administration's request represents a return to 2003 funding levels for the Army Corps. But it is likely that the agency's final budget will increase, as members of Congress -- eager to build water projects in their home districts -- pile on responsibilities.

The National Research Council last year raised concerns about the Army Corps' increasing project load and shrinking budget in a report that called the agency's mission unsustainable (Greenwire, March 25, 2011).

The administration's budget proposal says spending constraints imposed during the debt-limit showdown between Obama and Congress last year forced budget-writers to focus on the highest-priority work in the Army Corps' three core missions: flood and storm-damage reduction, commercial navigation and ecosystem restoration.

The budget provides $1.6 billion in what the administration calls "high return" construction projects.

"The Budget achieves savings by prioritizing investments that will yield high economic and environmental returns or address a significant risk to public safety," the proposal says.

Major ecosystem restorations -- the California Bay-Delta, Everglades, Chesapeake Bay and Gulf Coast -- would receive funding, as would efforts to restore Puget Sound and improve restoration in the Upper Mississippi, Missouri and Columbia rivers.

The administration also proposes to provide money for operation and maintenance of key navigation channels that serve the largest coastal ports and the inland waterways with the heaviest commercial use, such as the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and the Illinois Waterway.

Industry officials and their congressional allies are promoting a plan to increase spending on dredging and harbor maintenance (Greenwire, Feb. 1).

Their efforts are focused on improving reliability and operation of existing infrastructure rather than new project starts.

The Obama proposal would also reform the way inland waterway maintenance is funded, increasing taxes paid by carriers whose industry, the administration contends, has been largely subsidized by federal spending. The administration last fall floated a similar proposal, which waterway industry officials fiercely oppose (Greenwire, Oct. 3, 2011).

The Army Corps' regulatory efforts would also receive a boost of about 6 percent from 2012 levels.

"This funding will enable the Corps to provide greater protection to our wetlands and small streams, to reduce an ongoing loss of wetlands and other aquatic resources," the budget proposal says. "This will support a transparent and timely permit review process, helping to bring greater certainty to business planning while protecting environmental, social, and economic benefits provided to the American public by clean water."