Conservation, flood control compete for federal cash

WASHINGTON -- At Benedictine Bottoms north of Atchison, Kan., more than 2,000 acres of seasonal wetlands, hardwood trees and prairie grasses provide homes for Missouri River birds and other wildlife.

At Eagle Bluffs near Columbia, Mo., croplands are being converted to wetlands and backwater nursery pools designed to attract fish for spawning.

Projects such as these were designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under congressional order, to re-create hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat lost to Missouri River dams and channels for barge traffic.

They would get millions more federal dollars under the budget proposal President Bush submitted to Congress earlier this year.

But as lawmakers begin writing the federal budget next month, these conservation projects will have to compete for funding with the flood control projects Bush wants cut to pay for huge increases in funds for homeland defense.

Funds for rebuilding wildlife habitat along the Missouri would grow from $13 million this year to $17.5 million next year, despite cuts in other programs that would halt new construction of levees and other flood control projects.

"That's pretty phenomenal, given that this is a wartime budget," Domenic Izzo, a top corps official, told members of the Missouri River Basin Association during a recent meeting in Washington.

Izzo, who calls himself a "hook-and-bullet" conservationist, touted the success of projects such as Kansas' Benedictine Bottoms, which he said had more than tripled in size since 1994.

Balancing needs

However, flood control projects are closely guarded by members of Congress, who will be looking for ways to add money back in.

"I think it all boils down to that fact that money is tighter this year," said Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., a member of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.

Her Southeast Missouri district has a project Bush has twice targeted for cuts: The St. Johns Bayou/New Madrid Floodway project, which would close the state's only gap in the Mississippi River levee. Bush's budget for next year would reduce funding from $1 million this year to $100,000 next year.

As Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., who serves on the budget-writing Senate Appropriations Committee, said: "We're going to have to balance out the needs."

Bond pointed out that in years past, the corps hasn't spent all the money Congress gave it for rebuilding river habitat.

Under Bush's budget, Kansas would see only one construction project: $3 million more at Arkansas City. However, a Kansan sits on the House Appropriations Committee. That lawmaker, Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt, predicted that for his state, "there's going to be no threat" from proposed cuts.

"In my sphere of influence, we'll put a lot of emphasis on those flood control projects," Tiahrt said.

A budget tradition

Emerson said it is traditional for the White House Budget office to propose cuts "knowing that Congress is going to put the money back in."

However, while Bush is aware lawmakers want their projects funded, that doesn't mean he likes it. He fired his assistant Army secretary, Mike Parker, earlier this year for publicly opposing Bush's cuts and telling lawmakers he expected them to restore some of the money.

The cuts would reduce the corps' budget by 10 percent to $4.175 billion, excluding federal retirees' pensions and benefits, from the agency's requested $6 billion.

Besides restoring Missouri River environment, which includes sites in Iowa and Nebraska, too, the administration seeks to boost funds for similar projects in the Florida Everglades and the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. It also wants to deepen the New York and New Jersey Harbor and the corps' Olmsted Locks and Dam project in Illinois and Kentucky.