As federal lawmakers move toward the end of the 118th Congress, they are poised to pass an infrastructure package that would authorize about $10.7 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood protection and other of water projects, as well as implementing industry support. changes in cost sharing for certain waterway and dredging projects.
The measure, a new Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, took a big step toward enactment on Dec. 10 when the House passed it by a resounding, bipartisan vote of 399-18.
The last step in Congress is approval by the Senate. A Senate aide said Dec. 10 that floor action was expected in that chamber this week or next.
The measure also includes important provisions supported by industry and state officials regarding federal highway funding.
If the Senate passes the bill and President Joe Biden signs it into law in late 2024, it would continue a streak of enacting a WRDA every two years for a 10-year period.
There is no legal penalty for not meeting the WRDA year-end target.
But Caroline Sevier, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ managing director of government relations and infrastructure initiatives, said in a letter to WRDA’s congressional negotiators: “The biennial pattern provides the Corps with a degree of predictability, which allows a more effective planning and development of water resources projects throughout the country.”
Traditionally, the centerpieces of WRDA bills have been its lists of federal funding authorizations for individual Corps water projects. To be listed, a project must receive a favorable recommendation from the US Army Chief of Engineers.
The new commitment measure includes 21 such projects. They will receive a total of about $10.7 billion in federal funds, a spokesman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee told ENR.
Many of the projects will also have non-federal funding.
Advance Megaprojects
The project in line for the largest federal allocation is a coastal storm and flood risk management plan in the parish of St. Tammany of Louisiana, which is receiving $3.7 billion.
Other authorizations of more than $1 billion in the bill are: $1.78 billion for a coastal storm risk management project on the south shore of Staten Island in New York City.
$1.76 billion for a coastal storm risk management project in Florida’s Miami-Dade County; and $1.06 billion for the Everglades Comprehensive Restoration Plan in Florida. This project falls under the Corps’ category of ecosystem restoration projects.
Wins for cost-sharing adjustments
In addition to project authorizations, perhaps the most significant provisions related to the Body of the new WRDA are changes to cost shares for waterway and harbor dredging projects.
Waterways Council Inc. says he won a significant victory on a WRDA provision that permanently increases the share of the general fund for financing waterway construction and major rehabilitation projects to 75% and reduces the share of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund to 25% That represents a change from a 65/35 split now.
Tracy Zea, president and CEO of the Waterways Council Inc., says the change in cost shares for inland waterways “will have an extremely positive impact on our members.”
Zea said in an interview that the new cost-sharing agreement would bring in an additional $130 million a year for inland waterway construction projects.
Over 10 years, he says, “It’s basically funding one more construction project to completion per year.”
For the American Association of Port Authorities, the most impactful provision is a change in the depth threshold at which the Corps would fund dredging projects.
Under the new bill, the Corps would fund 75 percent of construction dredging costs at depths between 20 feet and 55 feet, up from a previous maximum depth of 50 feet for such projects.
In addition, the Corps would fund 100% of dredging operations and maintenance costs for depths up to 55 feet, starting at 50 feet.
The AAPA says the change is necessary to handle the larger vessels now in use.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.), who led House GOP negotiators on the final version of the bill, noted that it also includes provisions to “streamline the processes of the Body, reduce cumbersome bureaucracy and carry out the projects”. faster.”
Among the non-corporation provisions, some lawmakers and other infrastructure advocates pointed to language related to the federal highway program. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Executive Director Jim Tymon said in a letter to WRDA negotiators that AASHTO was pleased to see the bill include a provision to transfer 1.8 billion of “existing and stagnant” contract authority dollars from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) Federal Credit Assistance Program to the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program, which has a demand between states.
Tymon added that the provision would also redistribute 75 percent of any future unused amount of the $250 million provided to TIFIA in fiscal years 2025 and 2026.
The new WRDA package also reauthorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Dam Safety Program through 2028 and takes steps to strengthen the high-hazard potential dam program, according to the House committee. In addition, the bill reauthorizes the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration for the first time in 20 years.
Another piece of legislation focuses on the General Services Administration’s management of federal buildings. Graves said the bill would improve the use of federal office space and “reduce the amount of taxpayer dollars wasted in empty federal buildings and put federal workers back in the office.”
