U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Releases Work Plan for Fiscal 2011 Civil Works Appropriation

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) today released its work plan for the Army Civil Works program through the end of fiscal year 2011 (FY11).  The work plan details how USACE will execute the $5.065 billion Civil Works appropriation it received on April 15 when President Barack Obama signed Public Law 112-10, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011.

The Act provides funding to federal agencies through the end of FY11.  Title IV of the Act provides funding for energy and water development, including the Civil Works program.

The $5.065 billion in FY11 funding is distributed among Civil Works appropriation accounts as follows:

• $2.371 billion for Operation and Maintenance (O&M)
• $1.793 billion for Construction
• $264 million for Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T)
• $190 million for the Regulatory Program
• $185 million for Expenses
• $130 million for the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP)
• $127 million for Investigations
• $5 million for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works

Public Law 112-10 also rescinded $198 million of funds appropriated in previous fiscal years.  This includes $100 million from the Continuing Authorities Program in Construction, $22 million from MR&T, and $76 million of funds appropriated in FY08 or earlier in a number of appropriations.

Consistent with this Act, USACE prepared the work plan, or spending plan.  The work plan itemizes the allocations to programs, projects, and activities in each of the project-based appropriation accounts: Investigations, Construction, O&M, MR&T, and FUSRAP.  

The work plan builds on the President's Fiscal 2011 Budget released on February 1, 2010, and is performance based.

The FY11 work plan was formulated generally in accordance with the following principles:

• Specific work included in the President's Budget for FY11 is funded, unless it no longer can be executed in FY11.
• Within remaining funds, other priority work is funded on programs, projects, and activities that were either included in the FY11 Budget or are consistent with Executive Branch policies.  
• For some projects that were not included in the FY11 Budget and were not funded in the work plan for priority work, funding is provided for minimum costs such as for management of previously awarded contracts, legal requirements, or conclusion of useful work increments in a responsible and orderly manner.

Highlights of the FY11 work plan include:

• Funding is provided in the Investigations account for the completion of numerous feasibility studies, as well as for engineering and design of significant projects such as the Fargo, North Dakota - Moorhead, Minnesota flood risk management project.
• Funding is provided in the Construction account for progress on ongoing dam safety projects; important navigation projects such as New York/New Jersey Harbor and Olmsted Locks and Dam, Ohio River, Illinois & Kentucky; flood risk management projects in the Sacramento, California, area and other locations; and the Everglades ecosystem restoration program.  
• The Operation and Maintenance account funds both budgeted work and newly-arising repairs.  
• The Mississippi River and Tributaries account funds both budgeted work and flood-fighting activities related to the ongoing historic Spring 2011 floods.

The main Civil Works mission areas for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are commercial navigation, flood and coastal storm damage reduction, and aquatic ecosystem restoration, as well as hydropower.  The Civil Works program additionally contributes to the protection of the nation's waters and wetlands; the restoration of certain sites contaminated as a result of the nation's early atomic weapons development program; and emergency preparedness and training to respond to natural disasters.

Listings of the amounts provided to various programs, projects and activities in the FY11 Civil Works work plan can be found at http://www.usace.army.mil/CECW/PID/Pages/cecwm_progexe.aspx.

SOURCE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers