House Committee Passes Energy & Water Bill

On July 13, the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2021 Energy and Water Development bill, H.R. 7613, on a vote of 30 to 21. The bill appropriates strong funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The bill is expected to be included in among a series of appropriations packages that the House will vote on this week.

USACE is funded at $7.63 billion, a decrease of $21 million from the record set in FY 2020.  Roughly $2.6 billion is appropriated for Construction account, a decrease of about $61 million from the previous year. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund projects received $1.68 billion.  The Inland Waterways Trust Fund is funded at $90 million, not including other funding for inland waterways projects.  Funding for Operations and Maintenance is set at roughly $3.8 billion.  Importantly, the bill provides an additional $17 billion in emergency funding to accelerate Corps projects, of which $10 billion will go to the Corps’ Construction account and $5 billion in emergency funding for Operations and Maintenance.

AGC applauds the passage of this and other appropriation bills out of the Appropriations Committee and sent to the House of Representatives for a floor vote.  AGC firmly believes passing appropriations bills in a timely fashion helps provide federal agencies and, in turn, federal construction contractors, with financial and operational certainty that helps them with planning the execution of infrastructure projects.

 For more information, please contact Jordan Howard at Jordan.Howard@agc.org or (703) 837-5368.