As Corps of Engineers officials begin their pitch on Capitol Hill for a $4.5-billion fiscal 2006 civil works budgetdown $50 million from 2005they will ask lawmakers to buy into a new "performance-based" ranking system for construction projects. Its unclear how Congress will react. Legislators havent been shy about inserting their own priorities into Corps spending bills.
The new yardstick is a response to tight funding and a backlog of unfinished Corps projects estimated at $11 billion, or more. The plan focuses mainly on a multi-year projects ratio of its remaining benefits to costs. To reach the top category, a project needs at least a 3.0 benefit-cost score, says John Paul Woodley, assistant Army secretary for civil works.