Washington, D.C.- Today, Third District Representative Walter B. Jones will offer an amendment to the FY 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would raise the funding level for Army Corps of Engineers dredging projects nationwide. The bill, H.R. 2419, will be considered on the House floor early this evening.

H.R. 2419 provides funding for the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers, including the Corps’ important Operations & Maintenance (O&M) program. The O&M program is responsible for maintaining America’s ports, harbors, inlets and other waterway infrastructure. This year’s bill includes $2 billion for O&M, a 2 percent increase over last year. However, despite the work of Congressman Jones, the bill follows the President’s budget in slashing funding for shallow draft navigation projects across the country, including those in Eastern North Carolina. For example, the bill includes insufficient amounts for Oregon Inlet, and no money for dredging New River Inlet, Bogue Inlet, New Topsail Inlet, Carolina Beach Inlet, the Dismal Swamp Canal and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

The bill also includes new language that would restrict the Corps’ ability to reprogram money from projects that cannot use their full appropriations to projects that can use additional funds. Eastern North Carolina benefited from such transfers earlier this year when Congressman Jones and Congressman Mike McIntyre (NC-3) were successful in convincing the Corps to provide supplemental funding for additional dredging of four Eastern North Carolina inlets. Under this bill, those transfers would be impossible.

“Unless amended, this bill will ratify the problems created by the President’s budget,” Jones said. “It provided little to no funding to maintain critical waterway infrastructure all across this country, and I look forward to working with members from those areas to battle for the additional money we need.”

To that end, Jones will offer an amendment to raise the Corps budget by $20 million, a 1% increase over the amount in the bill. The increase must be offset by reductions elsewhere in the bill in order to meet congressional budget rules, so the amendment proposes to take the funding from Departmental Administration at the Department of Energy. In offering the amendment, Congressman Jones will be joined by Democrat Congressman Solomon Ortiz of Texas, who is also concerned about these issues.

“The President and my colleagues in Congress need to remember that these waterways are all federal projects which the taxpayers paid for. We need to protect that investment. Right now the annual maintenance backlog for O&M projects is roughly $1.7 billion. The money in this amendment is by no means sufficient to address that need, but it’s a step in the right direction. It should be a no brainer. Let’s take some money from the bureaucracy up here in DC and put it to use in Eastern North Carolina where it really counts,” Jones said.

For additional information or to schedule an interview with Congressman Walter B. Jones please contact Kristen Quigley at (202) 225-3415.