Posted on February 5, 2024
On January 18th, Congress passed a second continuing resolution funding federal government operations into March. Once again, Congress chose to separate the 12 appropriations bills into two groups with the Energy & Water (E&W) Appropriations bill in the first group that expires on March 1st. The E&W Appropriations bill funds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and includes our AIWW dredging and waterway maintenance projects. The table below shows the final funding for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) and the current status of FY24 funding. If a final appropriations bill or an additional continuing resolution isn’t passed by March 1st, the FY24 funding will not be available for projects. How could this impact the AIWW?
The short answer is we are able to rely on existing funding for the next few months, but this could have more serious impacts if the government shuts down or if more funding isn’t available before the end of the year. Fortunately, we have received over $100 million for projects since 2021, and projects are currently underway and will continue. However, we must stay diligent in our pursuit of annual funding to ensure that future projects will not be delayed. Our board of directors will be visiting Washington DC to stress this point with our elected officials during the March advocacy meetings.
We are cautiously optimistic that Congress will pass the E&W Appropriations bill in February and that it will become law prior to March 1st. If this occurs, the AIWW will not be negatively impacted and work will continue throughout 2024.
