NWC News Alert: President releases high-level FY2024 budget document

March 10, 2023

Dear NWC members,

Thank you so much for attending this week’s 2023 Legislative Summit in Washington DC this week! It was great seeing everyone. And I will be following up in several days with links to all of the presentations.

In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that President Biden released his high-level FY2024 budget request yesterday. At this point, the budget is a high level “blue print” with policy fact sheets. We are hearing that the appendices with the program level details will not be released until Monday. While NWC continues to look at the president’s budget document across all programs, please see a quick glance at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program budget request below.

President’s FY2024 Budget Request for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—Civil Works Program

The President’s FY2024 $6.8 trillion budget requests $7.413 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineering Civil Works (Corps) program, which includes $1.99 billion for commercial navigation, $2.033 billion for flood and storm damage reduction and $653 million for aquatic ecosystem restoration.

According to a Corps brief, the proposed budget allots the following:

  • Construction: The president’s FY2024 budget includes $2.115 billion for the Construction program. It includes $415 million for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration (SFER) (Everglades program); $66.67 million for Columbia River Fish Mitigation; $655 million for a dam safety project at Prado Dam and $350 million for Cape Cod Canal Bridge replacements. Furthermore, the budget includes $235 million for a “Project Cost Increase Reserve” to help projects that have had cost increases.
  • Operations and Maintenance: The O&M program would receive $4.472 billion under the president’s proposed budget. This also includes $997 million to maintain and improve navigation on the inland waters with priority given to the most commercially driven traffic. Furthermore, the budget gives $64 million for O&M activities that focus on climate resilience and/or sustainability, $51 million to mitigate for adverse impacts from existing Corps owned-projects and $26 million to build infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles at Corps owned projects. Finally, the O&M portion of the budget stresses that funded maintenance projects reflects a risk-informed approach that weighs project components against risk of a failure.
  • Investigations: The budget proposes $139 million for the Investigations program which includes $35.5 million for technical assistance to help communities, including disadvantaged communities address flooding risks due to climate change. Additionally under Investigations, the budget including funding to continued studies along the Great Lakes and central and southern Florida coasts on climate resilience.
  • Mississippi Rivers and Tributaries: The president’s budget gives $232 million for the MR&T account which the focus on the lower Mississippi River and in the Atchafalaya Basin.
  • Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund: The proposed budget includes $1.726 billion from HMTF for eligible projects with a focus on O&M for completed projects. Additionally, the budget includes $985 million to operate and maintain the top U.S. coastal ports that handle approximately 90% of the cargo shipped to/from the U.S. The HMTF part of the budget also includes $272 million for Great Lakes O&M projects, $58 million for Native American tribal projects in legally recognized historical fishing areas. $15 million for coastal dredge disposal projects and $21.15 million for mitigating adverse impacts from navigation projects.
  • Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies: The president’s budget offers $40 million toward preparing and training of Corps staff to respond after a flooding, hurricane or other similar natural disaster.
  • Regulatory Program: The regulatory program would receive $221 million under the budget to help process permits in a timely manner.
  • Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation: The president’s budget gives $7.2 million, including $5 million for administration costs, for the Corps WIFIA program to subsidize funding at non-federal dam safety projects.
  • Inland Waterways Trust Fund: None.

While the President’s annual budget is largely symbolic, it lays out the administration’s priority wish list for the coming appropriations cycle, and jump-starts Committee action on Capitol Hill. Now that the President’s budget is released, Congressional committees will start to hold hearings with administration officials on budget priorities and funding requests. NWC will continue to analyze the proposed president’s budget throughout this process.

Resources:

  • To view President Biden’s FY2024 budget “blueprint,” click here.
  • To see the Corps budget brief, including which projects the president’s budget proposes to fund, click here. (Then go to Fiscal Year 2024 under press books and it should take you to USACE’s FY2024 Civil Works budget)