Corps FY2023 Workplan Released
PNWA is pleased to report that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released their FY2023 workplan, which includes additional funding for many PNWA-related projects. We would like to thank the Northwest Congressional delegation for their efforts to support regional navigation in this process, and also thank the Corps for their direction of funds to these projects.
PNWA previously reported on the passage of the FY23 omnibus appropriations package at the end of last year. If a project is not funded in the President’s budget and the Energy & Water Development appropriations bill, then we have one last chance for funding in the fiscal year in the Corps’ workplan process. After the passage of the appropriations bill, the Corps has sixty days to provide Congress with a workplan detailing how it will spend discretionary pots of funding provided in the appropriations bill. To view the PNWA Supported Corps Projects List, click here.
The following projects secured additional funding in the FY2023 workplan:
Construction
- $18.225M – Columbia River Fish Mitigation projects
- $1.5M – Mount St. Helens Sediment Control Toutle River fish facility
Operations & Maintenance
- $2.714M – Seattle Harbor donor port funds
- $3.364M – Tacoma Harbor donor port funds
- $1.07M – Lake Washington Ship Canal additional maintenance, generator/electrical upgrades, BiOp implementation, and ArcFlash update
- $41M – Columbia & Lower Willamette below Vancouver, WA & Portland, OR to repair Cottonwood Island and Skamokawa Price Island pile dike systems
- $125K – Columbia River at Baker Bay (Port of Ilwaco) Baker Bay pile dike plans and specifications
- $250K – Tillamook Bay & Bar (Port of Garibaldi) wave buoy evaluation
- $2.249M Yaquina River (Port of Toledo) dredging
- $1.1M – Bonneville Dam for stilling basin rock removal and Bradford Island Federal Facilities Agreement negotiations and other restoration project activities
- $1.7M – Lower Monumental Dam replacement of navigation lock electric power systems
Following the release of the President’s FY2024 budget on March 9, PNWA will work closely with all three Corps Districts and the Northwestern Division to understand the additional capabilities for our region’s projects. We will then advocate for those priorities during the Mission to Washington and throughout the year as we visit Capitol Hill.
If you have any questions, please contact Dena Horton.
Administration Releases FY2024 Budget
The FY2024 appropriations process has begun with the release of the Biden Administration’s FY2024 Budget proposal. As in past years, the Administration has proposed a budget that is significantly reduced from the previous year’s enacted levels. Congress will now begin working to augment the budget to fund the coming fiscal year which runs October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024. This budget is complemented by FY2024 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act FY2024 funding of $1 billion for operations and maintenance and $50 million for construction.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program is proposed to receive $7.413 billion. This is well below the $8.66 billion enacted in FY2023. The Corps accounts PNWA tracks are as follows:
- $139 million – Investigations
- $2.115 billion – Construction
- $4.472 billion – Operations & Maintenance
- $221 million – Regulatory
- $1.726 billion – HMTF (to meet use of full annual receipts and spending down the HMTF surplus, we are seeking $2.77 billion for FY2024)
- $0 – IWTF
PNWA SUPPORTED CORPS PROJECTS
Construction
- $66.67 million – Columbia River Fish Mitigation Program ($23.82 million for Columbia River and $42.875 million for the Willamette River)
Investigations
- $7.4 million – Columbia River Treaty 2024 Implementation
- $782,000 – Columbia River and Lower Willamette Rivers below Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR for the Dredge Material Management Plan (DMMP)
Operations & Maintenance
Note: For the locks & dams projects below, many of the funding amounts noted would support multiple uses of the dams including navigation, fish passage repair and upgrades, recreation, etc.
- $14.357 million – Bonneville Lock & Dam
- $4.228 million – The Dalles Lock & Dam
- $6.212 million – John Day Lock & Dam
- $10.821 million – McNary Lock & Dam
- $8.84 million – Ice Harbor Lock & Dam
- $3.323 million – Lower Monumental Lock & Dam
- $3.272 million – Little Goose Lock & Dam
- $3.768 million – Lower Granite Lock & Dam
- $4.375 million – Howard Hanson Dam
- $7.666 million – Mud Mountain Dam
- $774,000 – Mount St. Helens Sediment Control
Oregon
- $8.356 million – Coos Bay (Port of Coos Bay)
- $0 – Skipanon Channel (Port of Astoria)
- $52,000 – Tillamook Bay & Bar (Port of Garibaldi)
- $4.706 million – Yaquina Bay & Harbor (Port of Newport)
- $0 – Yaquina River (Port of Toledo)
- $1.099 million – Siuslaw River (Port of Siuslaw)
- $1.223 million – Umpqua River (Port of Umpqua)
- $578,000 – Coquille River (Port of Bandon)
- $1.075 million – Rogue River at Gold Beach (Port of Gold Beach)
- $128,000 – Willamette River at Willamette Falls (Willamette Falls Locks)
- $29.340 million – Columbia River at the Mouth (MCR)
- $68.369 million – Columbia & Lower Willamette River Below Vancouver, WA & Portland, OR
- $1.231 million – Columbia River between Vancouver, WA and The Dalles, OR
Washington
- $3.333 million – Everett Harbor & Snohomish River (Port of Everett)
- $10.663 million – Lake Washington Ship Canal (navigation only)
- $193,000 – Seattle Harbor (Port of Seattle)
- $17.878 million – Grays Harbor (Port of Grays Harbor)
- $2.197 million – Swinomish Channel (Port of Skagit)
- $185,000 – Port Townsend (Port of Port Townsend)
- $73,000 – Olympia Harbor (Port of Olympia)
- $1.272 million – Columbia River at Baker Bay (Port of Ilwaco)
- $1.373 million – Columbia River between Chinook, WA & Sand Island (Port of Chinook)
PNWA will now work closely with the Portland, Seattle and Walla Walla Districts and Northwestern Division of the Corps to understand how this funding supports our PNWA Supported Corps Projects and what additional needs we will need to advocate for in the coming months. We will have more information to report very soon regarding these critical details.
While the release of the Administration’s FY2024 budget is an important first step, Congress will now create their own spending plans for the Corps as they work through the appropriations process for FY2024. PNWA will advocate for our regional supported projects as well as for the inclusion of national, programmatic “spending pots” to help address the shortfall of funding that is proposed for studies, construction, and operations and maintenance of projects of all sizes. These pots of funding are drawn upon during the development of the Corps’ work plan, and our region has performed well in past years in garnering funding for projects that were not funded in the President’s Budget or through the regular appropriations process.
Nor’wester readers will remember that the FY2023 omnibus appropriations bill was passed on December 23, 2022 signed into law on December 29, 2022. Discretionary funding pots were included and the Corps had 60 days of the bill’s enactment to produce a work plan outlining the allocation of those discretionary funds. On February 28, PNWA reported on the release of the FY2023 work plan. PNWA was pleased to see significant funding in the work plan process directed to PNWA projects in our region.
If you have any questions, please contact Dena Horton.