WASHINGTON — Louisiana's congressional delegation has requested $40 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, about 10 times the annual Corps budget for the entire nation, or 16 times the amount the Corps has said it would need to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane.

Louisiana Sens. David Vitter, a Republican, and Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, tucked the Corps request into their $250 billion Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act, the state's opening salvo in the scramble for federal dollars.

The bill, unveiled last week, would create a powerful "Pelican Commission" controlled by Louisiana residents that would decide which Corps projects to fund, and ordered the commission to consider several controversial navigation projects that have nothing to do with flood protection. The Corps section of the Louisiana bill, which was supported by the entire state delegation, was based on recommendations from a "working group" dominated by lobbyists for ports, shipping firms, energy companies, and other corporate interests.

The bill would exempt any Corps projects approved by the commission from the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. It also would waive the usual Corps cost-sharing requirements, ensuring that federal taxpayers would pay every dime.

With the public eager to help Katrina's victims, President Bush and Congress already have approved $62.3 billion in spending for the Gulf Coast. But some budget hawks are already grumbling about the impact on the deficit, and the Louisiana delegation's $250 billion bill would cost more than the Louisiana Purchase on an inflation-adjusted basis. Some critics of federal water projects said the $40 billion Corps request could make the delegation look especially greedy and undermine support for the state's reconstruction plans.

Vitter and Landrieu have described their bill as a starting point for congressional deliberations, but one GOP Senate aide said they should not expect to get their entire wish list, voicing particular skepticism of the funding for the Corps. Even before Katrina, Louisiana received more Corps funding than any other state, and that was less than $400 million a year.

Last year's overall Corps budget was $4 billion, and Corps officials have estimated they could upgrade the New Orleans flood-protection system to defend against a Category 5 storm for about $2.5 billion.

"This bill boggles the mind," said Steve Ellis, a water-resources expert at Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Brazen doesn't begin to describe it. The Louisiana delegation is using Katrina as an excuse to resurrect a laundry list of pork projects."

Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's aides helped shape the Louisiana bill, although the governor yesterday unveiled a slightly more-modest request for $31.7 billion in federal funds for her state's infrastructure, including $20 billion for hurricane protections.

The bill directs the Pelican Commission to study several key flood-protection projects, as well as a $14 billion ecosystem restoration for Louisiana's vanishing coastal marshes, which help protect vulnerable communities against storm surges.

But the list of potential projects also includes a 50-year-old plan for a $750 million lock for the New Orleans Industrial Canal, a project rated the fifth-worst Corps boondoggle in the country by an alliance of taxpayer advocates and environmentalists. It also includes an effort to deepen the Port of New Iberia for oil and gas tankers, a project the Corps concluded would provide only 30 cents of economic benefit for each dollar spent by taxpayers.

Corps funding is only part of what Louisiana wants. The 440-page bill also includes $50 billion in open-ended grants to storm-ravaged communities and $13 billion to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, along with mortgage assistance, health care, substance-abuse treatment and other services for hurricane victims. It also includes hefty payments to hospitals, ports, banks, shipbuilders, fishermen and schools, as well as $8 million for alligator farms, $35 million for seafood industry marketing, and $25 million for a sugarcane-research laboratory that was not yet complete.