Why It Matters

The Trump administration has starved the Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) continuing authorities programs of funding in fiscal 2025, leaving municipalities and local governments without a federal cost-sharing partner for small-scale flood control, shore protection, navigation, and ecosystem restoration projects, according to a new Congressional Research Service report.

The Big Picture

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates nine continuing authorities programs, or CAPs, each authorized under a different section of federal law. These programs allow USACE to study and construct water resources projects of limited size, cost, scope, and complexity without project-specific congressional authorization, subject to appropriations.

Each CAP has a federal cost limit per project, generally $15 million, and CAP projects require a nonfederal cost share, typically 35 percent, from a local government or nonprofit sponsor, though the Section 111 authority was raised to a per-project cost limit of $45 million in 2024.

For fiscal 2025, the Trump administration chose not to fund CAPs using annual appropriations, with one exception: $23 million for a Section 111 project in Camp Ellis, Saco, Maine. Yet the administration did deploy supplemental funds to flood-related CAPs, assigning nearly $100 million to projects under Section 14 and Section 205 authorities as directed by P.L. 118-158.

The Trump administration proposed a 23 percent cut to overall USACE funding in fiscal 2026, reducing the agency's budget by approximately $2.04 billion to $6.663 billion.

The 2024 Water Resources Development Act established a 10-year alternative delivery pilot for 25 CAP projects running through fiscal 2032, allowing nonfederal sponsors to lead projects and receive federal cost shares upfront.

P.L. 118-272 (WRDA 2024) authorized a new stormwater CAP, H.R. 9497 (WRDA 2026) would authorize a new CAP for flood control project improvements and a drought resiliency CAP, and S. 4949 (Division A, WRDA 2026) would establish simplified CAP evaluation procedures and require categorical NEPA exclusions for CAP projects.

The Bottom Line

The CRS report identifies a critical information gap: there is little public data on how long CAP projects take from initiation to completion, what is being accomplished with appropriated funds, and how many nonfederal sponsors request assistance.

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