The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released its final navigation work plan for FY2024. The plan details specific amounts to be spent on dredging, structure maintenance and other priorities at every port in the United States. During the last few days, the Detroit District staff have compiled a summary of Great Lakes provisions which can be found by clicking here.

Amounts shown in black are spending amounts originally proposed in the President’s FY2024 budget. Amounts shown in red are additional amounts either added via Congressional earmarks, or added administratively by the Corps of Engineers utilizing “additional funding” provided by Congress during the appropriations process.

What is “additional funding?”

While most of the Corps’ budget is micromanaged by Congress (line item-by-line item), Congress also gives the agency a “bucket” of additional funds for a number of activities such as construction, maintenance, and investigations. For example, in FY2024, Congress gave the Corps $600.5 million of additional funds for “deep draft harbor and channel maintenance.” These funds are not assigned to any specific project by Congress, but rather, are provided to the Corps to distribute administratively. In doing so, Congress is giving the agency some discretion to address unexpected needs.The FY2024 work plan reveals how the Corps plans to distribute the $600.5 million.

The Great Lakes summary shows that the Great Lakes region will receive a total of $368.28 million for navigation maintenance in FY2024. Much of this is harbor dredging and lock and breakwater maintenance. By way of comparison, the region received $342.1 million in FY2023.

The work plan also shows that in FY2024 Great Lakes legislators added a total of $12.58 million of earmarked funds for specific port projects. Further, the Corps assigned $81.52 million of the additional funds to Great Lakes projects.