It’s Official: Cruising Is Unfashionable in Florida

We are pleased to report recent actions in Washington, DC have led to more clarity for upcoming federal funding for the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) through the President’s release of the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Budget and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) release of their work plan for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) funding.

Fiscal Year 2026 President’s budget request

On May 2nd, Russel Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, transmitted the FY26 President’s budget request to Congress. The transmittal package is available by clicking here or via the link below. This version is called the “skinny budget” as it only provides top line numbers for departments and agencies and further detail will be provided in a subsequent release. At this point, we are expecting less money will be proposed for the Corps than was enacted in Fiscal Year 2025, but this is common practice and Congress typically increases funding above the President’s budget request. Stay tuned!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf

Corps’ Fiscal Year 2025 Work Plan

On May 15th, the Corps released their FY25 work plan listing funding for projects between October 2024 and September 2025. We have good news to share. Once again, we have Operation & Maintenance funding for every state along the waterway! In addition, the final amounts match the FY25 President’s budget, and we are receiving $33.271 million total. Below is a brief summary of the allocations for each state.

Summary of appropriations in the FY25 Work Plan
VA – President’s budget (PB) – $5.292 Million, Senate Appropriations Amount (Senate) – $5.292 Million, House Appropriations Amount (House) –  $5.292 Million, Final FY25 Appropriations Amount (Final) – $5.292 Million
NC – PB- $10.935 Million, Senate- $10.935 Million, House- $15.157 Million, Final- $10.935 Million
SC – PB- $8.628 Million, Senate- $8.628 Million, House- $8.628 Million, Final- $8.628 Million
GA – PB- $4.235 Million, Senate- $4.235 Million, House- $4.235 Million, Final- $4.235 Million
FL – PB- $4.181 Million, Senate- $4.181 Million, House- $10.181 Million, Final- $4.181 Million

Total for AIWW – President’s budget – $33.271 Million, Senate Appropriations Amount – $33.271 Million, House Appropriations Amount – $43.493 Million, Final FY25 Appropriations Amount- $33.271 Million

Our New Jersey partners were a big winner and received $3 million more than the FY25 President’s budget.

NJ- PB- $5.795 Million, Senate- $5.795 Million, House- $5.795 Million, Final- $8.795 Million

While less than in previous years, this funding level is a relatively good outcome for the AIWW in light of all the other cuts in government. We fared better than many other projects that sustained funding reductions or no funding compared to the FY25 budget. Unfortunately, the continuing resolution did not allow for the Community Project Funding requests (earmarks) by Rep. Brian Mast (FL) and Rep. Greg Murphy (NC) that were in the House bill or we could have possibly received over $10 million more in federal funding for the AIWW.

One other highlight for the AIWW is that our final funding was the same regardless of the presidency since the FY25 budget was developed under the Biden Administration and the work plan under the Trump Administration. This demonstrates the value of the waterway to the nation is not a partisan issue and bodes well for future funding allocations.

Additional details regarding the amounts provided to various programs, projects, and activities on the Work Plan may be found at: https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Budget/#WorkPlans.

Looking forward

With the release of the Corps’ FY25 Work Plan, our focus turns to the FY26 appropriations process. The next step will be for the President to release his detailed budget and for the House and Senate to develop their appropriation bills. The current FY25 funding ends on September 30, 2025.

We are working closely with our federal partners, and the AIWA board and executive director participated in 17 Congressional meetings with members and staff in Washington, DC in March and May. While the appropriations process would typically be further along by now, it was slowed to complete FY25 appropriations, and Congress is now awaiting the President’s detailed 2026 budget.

An important process that could have an impact on the appropriations process this year is budget reconciliation. Reconciliation allows for expedited consideration of changes in law to align spending, revenue, and the debt limit with agreed-upon budget targets. In this case, the Republicans in Congress are attempting to create a budget reconciliation package to address funding for their priorities and the priorities of the Administration since it only requires a majority vote and they have a majority in the House and Senate. It’s a complicated process and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has set a deadline of Memorial Day to pass the House version. The Senate would then consider the House bill. It is too early to tell if the GOP will pass a reconciliation bill, and more importantly for the AIWW, if the reconciliation process will delay the drafting of the annual appropriations bills.

We are proud to continue work with our Corps partners on execution of FY25 funding, and look forward to participating in the FY 26 appropriations process.