Army Corps Congressional Engagement Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill creates an annual congressional briefing process for Corps of Engineers projects. Each Corps district commander must brief each relevant Member of Congress's office, virtually or in person, on Corps-funded, Corps-led, or Corps-consulted watershed projects in that congressional district. The briefing must cover project location, status, delays, total and period funding spent, estimated additional funds needed, expenses since inception and during the covered period, environmental and local community impacts, engagement with non-federal sponsors or the public, related study or authorization opportunities, and additional appropriation requests, and must include time for questions. If a commander misses the briefing by December 1, they must send a written explanation and plan by December 31; if that statement is missed, the Army Inspector General must investigate and report within 30 days.
Who Benefits and How
Members of Congress, congressional staff, non-federal project sponsors, watershed communities, and the public benefit from earlier and more detailed information about Corps project status, delays, costs, environmental impacts, community impacts, and funding needs.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Corps district commanders must prepare and deliver annual briefings for each affected congressional office and written statements when briefings are late. The Army Inspector General must investigate failures to submit written statements and report recommendations to congressional offices and relevant committees.
Key Provisions
- Requires annual Corps district briefings for congressional offices covering Corps projects in the Member's district and watershed.
- Requires project-level information on location, progress, delays, funding spent, additional funding needs, expenses, environmental impacts, community impacts, engagement, and future authorization opportunities.
- Requires briefings to include time for Member and staff questions.
- Requires written explanations by December 31 when briefings are not completed by December 1.
- Requires Army Inspector General investigation and reporting when the written explanation is not submitted.
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 Army Corps district commanders to brief Members of Congress annually on Corps watershed projects in their districts, with written explanations and Inspector General follow-up when briefings are missed.
Key Policy Areas
Water Infrastructure, Government, Environment
Primary Purpose
Requires Army Corps district commanders to brief Members of Congress annually on Corps watershed projects in their districts, with written explanations and Inspector General follow-up when briefings are missed.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Members of Congress
- Congressional staff
- Watershed communities
- Non-Federal Corps project sponsors
Identified Costs
- Corps of Engineers district commanders
- Army Inspector General
- Corps project administrators
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Mr. Torres of New York (for himself and Mr. Latimer) …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Army Inspector General, Congressional staff, Corps of Engineers district commanders
Positive-direction: Congressional staff, Members of Congress
Negative-direction: Army Inspector General, Corps of Engineers district commanders
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "inspector_general"
- → Inspector General of the Army
- "district_commander"
- → District Commander of each Corps of Engineers district
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.
Learn more about our methodology