The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers has reallocated $33 million from its current fiscal year budget to respond to the March 26 containership crash that resulted in the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, leading to the death of six people and shutting down the ninth-busiest port in the United States.
This decision by the Army Corps has not been met with approval by House representatives who are witnessing federal funding being taken away from necessary projects in their districts, such as an $831,000 cut to a harbor project in Jacksonville, Florida.
In a letter addressed to Mr.
Webster, it was explained that the Army Corps had utilized its emergency program reprogramming authority to repurpose approximately $33 million of previously allocated operation and maintenance funds for recovery costs resulting from the collapse of the Key Bridge.
Through this reprogramming authority, almost $1 million was “re-appropriated” from Florida projects without any input requested from congressional delegations, the state, or the people.
The entire Florida congressional delegation was only informed of this action via email, and they were initially led to believe that they needed to actively object in order for the funds to be reprogrammed.
However, it seems that this assumption was incorrect since no member of the 28-member Florida congressional delegation had been contacted by the Corps regarding the matter.
Many Republican and Democratic members expressed their frustration during a two-hour hearing on the federal response and investigation into the March 26 allision between the Singapore-flagged containership Dali and the 1.6-mile Key bridge, which remains pinned to the fractured pylons.
The Army Corps plans to clear the remaining debris by mid-May and fully reopen the Port of Baltimore by late May.
Maryland had applied for funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Emergency Relief Program following the incident, receiving $60 million—about 5% of the initial estimated $1.2 billion recovery cost.
While there is some shifting within the budget due to the Baltimore ship-bridge allision, none of the money being “re-programmed,” including the $831,000 earmarked for Jacksonville Harbor, will affect any ongoing or planned projects, such as in Jacksonville Harbor.
The Corps used Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) funds to support the operation and obtained additional funds through an internal emergency reprogramming of unused operation and maintenance funds from prior-year appropriations to continue supporting this mission.
The tally for the repurposed funds currently stands at $37 million, with $33 million being “unneeded.” The majority of these funds were saved by negotiating contracts for funded projects during favorable bid environments during times of COVID and by adjusting differences between budgeted amounts and actual spending.
This led to some allocations being clawed back, such as the $831,000 in Jacksonville Harbor that was no longer needed for the project.
The Army Corps acknowledged that they had been somewhat slow in cleaning up their books and should have addressed this issue sooner.
Mr.
Webster raised questions about why the Corps let these funds sit unused for years and whether it plans to reimburse its South Atlantic Division for these funds.
While no promises were made, it was acknowledged that Mr.
Webster’s observation about the matter was accurate.