The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified short-term Natural Disaster Recovery Activities to be accomplished with a portion of the funding provided for disaster recovery in Public Law 115-123, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, signed into law February 9, 2018.
Among other things, Public Law 115-123 provides $17.398 billion to USACE for disaster recovery in six appropriations accounts: Investigations; Construction; Mississippi River and Tributaries; Operation and Maintenance; Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies; and Expenses.
The initial allocation of approximately $360 million of the $608 million of appropriations in the Operation and Maintenance account will be used to address the highest priority needs identified by USACE at 32 projects in 12 states.
The funding for this short-term repair work is to be used for repairs to USACE projects damaged by natural disasters and to perform emergency dredging of shoaled material deposited at USACE projects by natural disasters.
“ The short-term repair work will alleviate the impacts of the project damages and shoaling on human safety, flood-prone property, commercial navigation costs, ecosystem values, and other project outputs such as recreation, hydropower and water supply, ” said Mr. R.D. James, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.
Additional operation and maintenance work will be identified as information on damages incurred at USACE projects and the estimates of the cost to address those damages are refined. As additional natural disasters occur, it is possible that some previously identified work will be removed from the list. USACE will announce additional allocations of funds under PL 115-123 at a later date.