The Army Corps of Engineers has “reappropriated” $33 million from its current-year budget in responding to the March 26 containership crash that knocked down Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six people and shutting down the ninth-busiest port in the United States.
That doesn’t sit well with House representatives, who are seeing federal money sifted from needed projects in their districts, such as the $831,000 trimmed from a harbor project in Jacksonville, Florida.
“Last week, the Army Corps modified and notified congressional offices that they would be utilizing the emergency program reprogramming authority to reprogram approximately $33 million of previously appropriated operation and maintenance for recovery costs imposed by the collapse of the Key Bridge,” Mr. Webster said.
Through that “reprogramming authority,” he said, “nearly $1 million was ‘reappropriated’ from Florida and projects in Florida without any request for input from congressional delegation, the state, or the people.”
“In fact,” Mr. Mast wrote in the letter, “the entire Florida congressional delegation was only informed of this action via email. Initially, we were led to believe that we needed to actively object, or that it would be assumed members concurred with the decision for the funds to be reprogrammed.”
He would know that assumption is wrong if the Corps had actually spoken with any of Florida’s 28-member congressional delegation, he said.
“The overwhelming response, from both Republican and Democratic members, was that the Corps should not take any funding out of the state of Florida,” he said, claiming that Mr. Graham’s after-the-fact efforts to justify the “reprogramming” is “more of a notification than a request for sign-off.”
The Florida Republicans vented their frustration during a two-hour hearing on the federal response and investigation into the 95,000-ton Singapore-flagged Dali’s March 26 allision with the 1.6-mile Key bridge.
The Dali remains pinioned to the bridge’s fractured pylons. On May 13, controlled explosions removed the truss that had fallen onto the ship. The Corps is poised to clear the remaining debris by mid-May and fully reopen the Port of Baltimore by late May.
On March 28, Maryland applied for funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Emergency Relief Program and was issued $60 million—roughly 5 percent of the initial $1.2 billion recovery estimate.
Many—both Republicans and Democrats—are hesitant to make such a commitment so early in the recovery process before the price tag is known, especially if it sets a precedent and if it means that long-planned infrastructure projects across the country see annual allocations shaved and diverted to Baltimore Harbor.
That’s not going to happen, Mr. Graham assured.
While there is shifting within the budget because of the Baltimore ship-bridge allision, none of the money being “reprogrammed”—including the $831,000 earmarked for Jacksonville Harbor—will affect any underway or planned projects, including in Jacksonville Harbor, he said.
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 to support this mission,” Mr. Graham said, noting that “so far,” the tally amounts to $37 million with $33 million that was “unneeded.”
“Most” of the $37 million “we didn’t need, so where does that money come from? Mainly it’s in savings,” he said, noting that many contracts for funded projects were negotiated “during times of COVID when it was a very favorable bid environment” and with differences between what was budgeted and what was spent.
“We were able to claw back” some allocations, according to Mr. Graham.
That is what happened in Jacksonville Harbor, he noted. The $831,000 is “no longer needed for the Jacksonville Harbor project.”
“So those funds, in particular, we had set them aside for a need and that need didn’t materialize,” Mr. Graham said.
He said that in the immediate scramble after a disaster, “we did do this emergency reprogramming work, Congressman, very rapidly,” noting that it has been more than 15 years since the Corps has used its reprogramming authority “at this scale, and we are a little clunky at it in terms of our notification to you and your staffs.”
Mr. Webster said it was interesting that the Corps can find a stray $33 million—and counting—that it “didn’t need” in its budgets.
“These reprogrammed funds were deemed to be ‘in excess,’” he said. “Why did the Corps let these funds sit for years and not act sooner? And will the Corps plan to reimburse [its] South Atlantic Division for these funds?”
Mr. Graham made no promises but did say Mr. Webster was right about one thing.
“Why haven’t we cleaned up the books sooner? Sir, you’re absolutely right. We should have,” Mr. Graham said.
