Water Resources Development Act of 2016
Latest action. Received in the Senate.
Highlights:
This bill revises or authorizes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water resources development projects, feasibility studies, and relationships with nonfederal project sponsors. It establishes a process to deauthorize projects with an aggregate estimated federal cost to complete of at least $10 billion.
It sets forth requirements concerning:
harbor operations and maintenance, emerging harbors, donor ports, and energy transfer ports;
navigation and flood management projects;
reservoir operations and storage allocations;
dredging alternatives;
floating cabins;
dam repair;
ice jams;
aquifer depletion;
aquatic invasive species; and
permits to occupy, use, or alter certain public works.
The bill reauthorizes estuary habitat restoration projects and the Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative through FY2021.
To assist states, the bill contains provisions for:
drought emergencies,
regional district flood damage reduction projects, and
combined funding in groups of states.
Additional funding is authorized for repair or replacement of water infrastructure for authorized communities in states with presidentially declared emergencies based on the presence of chemical, physical, or biological constituents, including lead in an eligible water system.
The bill establishes requirements for "no wake" zones in Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway navigation channels, revisions to Table Rock Lake plans, and land in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, to be held in trust for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council must issue regulations for environmental bank preservation projects that provide credits to offset adverse environmental impacts.
The Corps of Engineers' authority to accept funds to expedite permits is expanded to railroad carriers and made permanent for public utilities or natural gas companies. It must designate a principal approving official to coordinate development of unmanned aircraft systems.
The Corps may operate a fish hatchery to restore threatened or endangered fish species.
The bill authorizes various navigation, flood risk management, hurricane and storm damage, ecosystem restoration, recreation, or river shoreline projects in Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The summary continues for 173 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House amended" stage on September 28, 2016. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Received in the Senate.
Civibrief does not map this action to a stage in the process. See the official record.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
The latest action on file does not map to a stage Civibrief recognizes, so the page will not name one. The record's own words are the reliable fact here.
The record's latest action, on September 29, 2016: Received in the Senate.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one has no outstanding steps listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Bill Shuster (R-PA) introduced it on May 23, 2016, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 2 Democrats, 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on May 23, 2016, 3762 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3633 days ago, on September 29, 2016.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseReceived in the Senate.
- SenateNot stated in the latest action
- PresidentNot stated in the latest action