Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today blamed the bad fiscal practices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the House Appropriations Committee's decision to withhold funding for beach replenishment and flood control projects across most of the state.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that was approved by the committee yesterday includes a significant amount of language requiring the Army Corps to end its traditional practice of moving money among different projects despite the clear intent of Congress in appropriating the funding.

Pallone sent a letter to Army Corps of Engineers Chief Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock today requesting that the "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers take prompt steps to curtail its use of reprogramming, savings and slippages, and other fiscal management techniques used in defiance of Congressional intent.

"My district, in fact, has been affected by some of these practices," Pallone continued in his letter. "During the past year, $75,000 from the Port Monmouth Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction project was reprogrammed to a project in Delaware, and $250,000 from the Sandy Hook to Barnegat Beach Erosion Control project was reprogrammed to a different project in New Jersey."

The New Jersey congressman hopes the Army Corps will take this action by the House Appropriations seriously and immediately change its ways so that he will be able to secure additional funding in a final conference report that reconciles differences between separate bills passed in the House and Senate.

"The House Appropriations Committee decided to fund only projects that are currently in their initial construction stage until the Army Corps changes its management practices," Pallone said. "It's incumbent on the Corps to change its management practices soon if we are to get additional funding this year before the Energy and Water bill is sent to the president's desk."

Pallone cited refill projects along the coasts of Monmouth County, where sand has already been placed on the beaches but are now in need of renourishment , and flood control projects in the Bayshore, as examples that would not likely receive funding until the Army Corps changes its ways.