Industry Seeks FY16 Spending Boost for Corps Civil Works

As congressional appropriators continue their work on spending bills for fiscal year 2016, industry groups are pushing for an increase in the Army Corps of Engineers civil works budget.

A coalition including the American Association of Port Authorities, Waterways Council Inc. (WCI) and others wrote key appropriators on March 12, requesting $2.76 billion in 2016 for the Corps navigation program, up 17% from 2015. To help reach that goal, the coalition wants Congress to appropriate $1.25 billion in Harbor Maintenance Tax revenue for FY16, the goal set in 2014's Water Resources Reform and Development Act.

WCI CEO Mike Toohey told reporters at a March 11 briefing that 60% of Corps locks exceed their design lives. He said industry wants Congress to lift FY16 Inland Waterways Trust Fund infrastructure spending 28%, to $360 million. Last year's 9¢-per-gallon barge-fuel tax hike will add at least $70 million a year to the fund.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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