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May 12, 2014
Army Corps Civil Works Funding: A Primer
Overview
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is an agency in
the Department of Defense with both military and civil
works responsibilities. At the direction of Congress, the
Corps plans, builds, operates, and maintains a range of
water resource and related recreation facilities. Its civil
works responsibilities are principally to support navigation,
reduce flood and storm damage, and protect and restore
aquatic ecosystems. The agency also has several water
resources regulatory responsibilities and issues multiple
types of permits. Congress typically funds Corps civil
works activities through annual Energy and Water
Development Appropriations acts. Congress often provides
more funds than requested by the Administration, as shown
in Figure 1.
Prior to attention and restrictions on congressionally
directed spending, much of the additional funding provided
by Congress was designated for use on specific studies or
projects. More recently, Congress has provided “additional
funding” for sets of Corps activities, without identifying
specific projects. In doing so, Congress has provided
guidance to the Administration on the types of projects that
should receive those funds and often requires the
Administration to report back on which projects it selects to
receive these funds. “Additional funding” represented $777
million in FY2014 and $510 million in FY2012,
respectively representing 14% and 10% of the agency’s
budget in those years.
Figure 1. Annual Budget Request and Enacted
Appropriations for Corps Civil Works
Source: Congressional Research Service, using Corps data.
Corps Funding Is Divided into Budget Accounts
Congress provides money to the Corps generally by
designating specific amounts for various budget accounts in
appropriations laws. The accompanying congressional
reports, which are sometimes incorporated into law by
reference, often identify specific Corps projects to receive
appropriated funds. With the heightened attention to and
restrictions on congressionally directed spending, the
projects identified in these reports have been limited largely
to the projects included in the President’s budget request
(i.e., new line items have not been added by Congress at the
project level). Since FY2010, congressional action on
Corps appropriations has generally been limited to (1)
alteration of the amounts requested for individual projects
in the President’s request; and (2) provision of “additional
funding” for sets of Corps activities that were not provided
for in the President’s Budget.
Figure 2 shows Corps funding by budget account since
FY2009. Funding for the Operations and Maintenance
(O&M) account has made up a growing portion of the
Corps funds over this time, while the budget for the
Construction account has been reduced. Maintenance
funding for harbor-related maintenance activities is funded
in part from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF).
This trust fund receives revenues from taxes on waterborne
commercial cargo imports and on cruise ship passengers at
federally maintained ports. Similarly, roughly half of inland
waterways construction appropriations are from the Inland
Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF), which receives the
proceeds of a fuel tax on barge fuel for vessels engaged in
commercial transport on designated waterways. While the
HMTF has a large surplus balance, the IWTF faces revenue
shortages that may prevent it from maintaining historical
levels of expenditures.
The nonfederal demand for and pace of congressional
authorization exceeds the agency’s construction funding.
The agency has roughly $60 billion in authorized new
construction and major rehabilitation work, while its
construction appropriations averaged $1.7 billion from
FY2010 to FY2014.
Army Corps annual appropriations are increasingly
directed to project operations and maintenance.
