Fight over Army Corps contracting technique delays spending bill

Republican budget disagreements are not getting any easier to resolve, as House and Senate appropriators abruptly scrapped today's planned conference meeting on a $30.5 billion fiscal 2006 Energy and Water spending bill because of differences over Army Corps of Engineers contracting procedures.

In the Energy and Water bill appropriators have tentatively agreed to fund Army Corps accounts -- tremendously popular among lawmakers -- at $5.4 billion, about $1 billion above the White House request and $600 million above last year.

But after an apparent agreement, talks broke off Wednesday night when Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., objected to House language restricting the use of "continuing contracts." The practice has been in use for 83 years and allows the Corps flexibility to execute contracts obligating appropriations in future fiscal years to pay for projects.

House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, objects to more frequent uses of continuing contracts in recent years, and his bill seeks to clamp down on the practice by requiring the Corps to fully budget for a contract's costs in that fiscal year.

Senate appropriators object to the House language, arguing that the Corps needs flexibility to use continuing contracts and reprogram excess funds when necessary for higher-priority projects.

Sources said House appropriators thought they had won concessions from the Senate to include the House language -- greasing the deal with hundreds of millions in Senate earmarks.

But Senate aides denied that claim, arguing that Cochran and Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., have always objected to the House provisions on Army Corps contracts and that a bookkeeping snafu at the staff level led the House to believe the issue was settled.

Now the entire bill remains open. And with a supplemental funding request expected Friday directing money to the Corps to fix New Orleans levees, there is a fear that the regular fiscal 2006 Corps budget could still be in play with a potential effort to increase Energy Department funds at the Corps' expense -- hence the desire to wrap the bill up Thursday and file it for consideration.