Unlike many other agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ budget is built project-by-project. The President typically requests funding for specific water projects throughout the country, Congress says yes or no, adds or subtracts funds from each, and, in years past, added hundreds of more projects onto the list. (See our past post when these funds first appeared in FY 2012).

Under the earmark moratorium, piling on hundreds of additional projects is prohibited.  Thus starting in FY 2012 Congress created a number of “slush-y” funds to funnel more cash to the Corps without violating the earmark moratorium.  These pots of money are intended, in the words of the Appropriations Committees, “for work that either was not included in the administration's request or was inadequately budgeted.” The problem is that many of the funds end up being spent on highly parochial projects that don’t rise to national importance or that, like with the $44 million on Environmental Infrastructure projects (EI). As an example EI projects don’t serve any national interest, are outside the Corps’ mission areas (draining funds from other important projects), and are duplicative of other federal programs. It’s worth noting that Corps Environmental Infrastructure projects have been opposed by every President since their creation and didn’t receive any funding in the Clinton, Bush, or Obama budgets.

The Omnibus not only continues this trend, but it appears Congress is doubling down on this slush-y fund strategy with more than three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Slush-y Funds Contained in Energy and Water Portion of FY2014 Omnibus Bill ($ in thousands)

Category Totals, Compared to Amounts Requested
by Administration, House, & Senate ($ in thousands)