Army Corps of Engineers/Geographic Distribution of Construction Funding for Water Resources Projects: February 20th U.S. Government Accountability Office Report

The United States Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) published a February 20th report titled:

Army Corps of Engineers: Geographic Distribution of Construction Funding for Water Resources Projects (“Report”).

See GAO-25-107241.

GAO notes that the Water Resources Development Act of 2022 included a provision that required it to review the United States Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) funding of its water resources projects. Therefore, GAO examined:

1. the geographic distribution of annual and supplemental funding for water resources projects carried out by the Corps in fiscal years 2018 through 2023, and
2. the factors that contributed to the geographic distribution of funding.

GAO states that it analyzed allocation and geographic data provided by the Corps to determine the location of Corps projects that received construction funding in fiscal years 2018-2023. Its review included:

• Annual Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Acts (“Acts”).
• Accompanying explanatory statements to the Acts.
• Five supplemental Appropriations Acts that provided construction funding during the period.
• Corps and Army documents, policies, and guidance.

Knowledgeable Corps officials about the relevant processes were interviewed to determine the factors that contributed to the geographic distribution of construction funding.

The Report notes:

• Congress directed $8.7 billion (30.5% of all construction funding) to specific projects and activities in annual appropriations acts.
• For the remaining $19.8 billion (69.5% of funding) Congress included project eligibility criteria and other considerations in appropriations acts that influenced the distribution of funding. (Criteria were applied by the Corps along with other considerations identified in Corps Army guidance to identify eligible projects and prioritize projects to receive construction funding, subsequent to which the Corps ranked the discrete segments of work at each project to compile a list of proposed allocations. 

Figure 5 in the Report identifies by state the number of construction projects and construction funding amounts above $250,000,000 for the Corps for fiscal years 2018-2023.

The State of Arkansas is identified as having seven projects for a total of $438,000,000.

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.