AIWA Comments on Election Impacts on the FY 2025 Appropriations Process

With the election results almost finalized and only a handful of House of Representatives races to be called, Congress will be returning to Washington, D.C. looking at a much different political landscape next year. It is becoming more likely that the Republican party will maintain control of the House of Representatives after securing the presidency and Senate relatively quickly after the election last Tuesday.  This leads to a number of new questions for how Congress will complete the federal appropriations process for FY 2025, and specifically how it will impact the waterway.

As highlighted in previous AIWA newsletters, Congress passed a continuing resolution that was signed by President Biden on September 26 to keep federal agencies open through December 20th. This sets up a possible government shutdown right before Christmas, which neither party will want to be responsible for, so what happens now?

The best case scenario for the waterway would be for Congress to pass the Energy & Water Appropriations bill in December. However, with the election of President Trump and the Senate switching to a Republican majority, it is more likely that the Republicans will want to pass another continuing resolution into the next Congress when they will have more control to shape the final appropriations bill.  The good news for us is that the Corps of Engineers budget is generally supported by both political parties and we received two Community Funding Project requests (formally known as earmarks) from two Republican House Members (Rep. Mast- FL and Rep. Murphy- NC).

In the table below is the current breakdown of funding as it stands today. In addition, the House and Senate have also included the following amounts in the Additional Dredging Needs funding pots which we are eligible to receive.