HR9497-119

What This Bill Does

H.R. 9497 authorizes Army Corps of Engineers water-resource studies and projects, changes the rules for delivering them, and modifies numerous existing programs and local projects. The Secretary generally means the Secretary of the Army, not the Interior Secretary. The five titles cover general policies, studies and reports, deauthorizations and modifications, project authorizations, and national dam safety. This is principally an authorization bill: project estimates and authorization ceilings are not immediate appropriations or guarantees that every listed project will be funded. Section 401's project tables, read from the official XML as well as the flattened text, form part of the substantive authorization.

Who Benefits and How

Port authorities, inland navigation operators, and shipping customers can benefit from expedited dredging, navigation projects, and dedicated inland construction management. Flood-prone residents, municipal water utilities, agricultural water users, and drought-exposed communities gain study eligibility and potential infrastructure support. Rural communities and Tribal communities receive outreach priorities and specified technical-assistance and oversight measures. Project sponsors gain electronic permit and environmental-review tracking, locally tailored study schedules, broader alternative-delivery assistance, and possible credit or reimbursement for eligible contributions. Mitigation-bank providers gain recognition of future-delivery credits, subject to mitigation planning. The bill also benefits named land recipients, including Corona, Duck, Toledo, Umatilla County, the Canaveral Port Authority, and The St. Joe Company, subject to distinct payment and use conditions.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Corps must create four offices within 180 days using existing general-expense authorizations, carry out extensive studies and reports, change guidance, and administer the new programs. EPA must approve joint contaminated-sediment plans before the bill's liability protection applies. GAO and the Engineer Inspector General receive additional oversight work. Non-Federal project sponsors often must supply land, easements and matching funds, then pay ongoing operation and maintenance costs. Federal taxpayers would bear authorized federal shares if Congress later provides funding. Land-transfer recipients generally pay transaction costs and assume liability for later activities, while the United States retains responsibility for prior activities. Communities and landowners near modified projects can face construction disruption, changes in flood risk or property arrangements, and environmental tradeoffs; the bill retains specific safeguards and does not categorically waive environmental review.

Key Provisions

• Creates offices for inland navigation construction; water supply, conservation and drought resilience; technical assistance and community outreach; and alternative delivery methods, with reporting and coordination duties.
• Requires categorical permissions for similar activities with minimal individual and cumulative environmental effects, a proposed rule within 180 days and at least 30 days of public comment, while preserving Corps permission decisions and other federal and state law.
• Replaces rigid feasibility-study controls with collaborative district schedules and cost estimates, requires explanations for studies exceeding four years or $5 million in federal cost, and permits sponsor-requested deadline extensions.
• Authorizes $50 million annually for the new covered flood-project improvement program, with a $15 million federal per-project ceiling and generally a 75% non-Federal construction share. The separate drought program authorizes $35 million annually, caps federal spending at $10 million per study or project, and generally requires a 35% local construction share with different small-storage rules.
• Protects the Army Secretary from CERCLA liability for covered sediment work performed under an EPA-approved joint plan, while preserving recovery from responsible polluters, public input, documentation, and safety requirements.
• Requires benefits of natural or nature-based measures to be counted at least equal to costs on no more than ten selected projects, with reporting after four years and a five-year initiation sunset; this is an evaluation rule, not evidence of measured benefits.
• Requires unanimous approval of the ten named Missouri River State governors for covered out-of-state diversions and related Corps studies, with a savings provision for specified existing federal reserved water rights.
• Expands environmental-infrastructure authorizations, including new local water and wastewater entries and modifications of prior limits, and permits the federal share to reimburse eligible sponsor costs when funding is available.
• Authorizes the listed section 401 projects, including Gulfport deep-draft navigation at an estimated $548.216 million total, Kentucky Lock Addition at $2.742 billion total, Chickamauga Lock Replacement at $1.567 billion total, and Central Everglades Planning Project modifications at $12.322 billion total, with federal and non-Federal shares shown in the source tables.
• Authorizes new and expanded feasibility studies and prioritizes named projects for completion, without treating a study authorization or an instruction to expedite as unconditional construction funding.
• Directs free conveyances for specified public purposes in Corona, Duck and Toledo where authorized, a fair-market-value Umatilla transaction, a value-balanced St. Joe Company land exchange, and a review leading to eligible Canaveral transfers or exchanges; public-use reversions and retained navigation interests apply where specified.
• Requires mitigation transparency and coordination, wildfire and sediment assessments, workforce and Tribal-policy reviews, and regular updates on inactive-project deauthorization; nonbinding sense-of-Congress provisions do not themselves create payment or construction mandates.
• Extends the $60 million annual authorization for rehabilitation of eligible high-hazard dams through fiscal 2031, changes the state dam-safety maintenance-of-effort lookback from two to seven fiscal years, and removes low-head dams from the inventory reference used in the proportional state assistance formula. The effects of the longer spending average and formula adjustment vary by State.
• Requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator to begin a study of barriers to States prioritizing high-hazard dam projects with the greatest community benefit, submit a one-year progress report, and complete the study and recommendations within two years. State dam safety agencies and downstream communities may benefit from continued assistance and improved prioritization; FEMA and participating States bear administrative costs.