Dredging Coordination Improvement Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Dredging Coordination Improvement Act applies when the Secretary of the Army, through the Chief of Engineers, sets the scope and performance timeline for maintenance dredging contracts. The Secretary must consult stakeholders, including applicable non-Federal sponsors, and where practicable prioritize dredging in commercial and navigation waters, emergency dredging, dredging needed to fit environmental windows, and dredging supporting activities of important national interest before recreational or non-commerce dredging. The Secretary may bypass consultation with non-parties when an emergency or important national interest is at stake. If performance changes are reasonably likely to affect the contract period, the Secretary must notify the non-Federal sponsor by the third business day after receiving the information. Upon request, the Secretary must provide capability numbers for maintenance dredging activities to the non-Federal sponsor.
Who Benefits and How
Port authorities, harbor sponsors, commercial navigation users, and non-Federal dredging sponsors benefit from earlier consultation, schedule-change notices, and access to capability numbers. Emergency-response and nationally important navigation projects benefit from statutory priority over lower-commerce dredging.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Army Corps of Engineers must add consultation, prioritization, notification, and information-sharing steps to maintenance dredging contract planning. Recreational dredging users may receive lower priority than commercial, emergency, environmental-window, or national-interest projects. Dredging contractors may need to adapt to scopes and timelines shaped by sponsor consultation and priority rules.
Key Provisions
- Requires Army Corps consultation with applicable non-Federal sponsors and other stakeholders when setting maintenance dredging contract scope and timelines.
- Requires practicable priority for commercial navigation, emergency, environmental-window, and national-interest dredging.
- Authorizes the Secretary to bypass non-party consultation in emergencies or important national-interest situations.
- Requires notice to non-Federal sponsors by the third business day when changes are likely to affect performance periods.
- Requires capability numbers for maintenance dredging activities to be shared with non-Federal sponsors upon request.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires the Army Corps to consult non-Federal sponsors on maintenance dredging contracts, prioritize navigation and urgent dredging needs, notify sponsors of schedule-affecting changes, and share capability numbers on request.
Key Policy Areas
Transportation, Water Infrastructure, Ports
Primary Purpose
Requires the Army Corps to consult non-Federal sponsors on maintenance dredging contracts, prioritize navigation and urgent dredging needs, notify sponsors of schedule-affecting changes, and share capability numbers on request.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Port authorities
- Non-Federal dredging sponsors
- Commercial navigation users
- Emergency dredging projects
Identified Costs
- Army Corps of Engineers
- Recreational dredging users
- Maintenance dredging contractors
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
Mr. Mullin (for himself, Mr. Ezell, and Mr. Weber of …
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
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