When the Water Resources Reform and Development Act was signed into law June 10, 2014, it was hailed as a major accomplishment. WRRDA was the first big Army Corps of Engineers water policy and authorization measure enacted in more than six years and a rare case of a bill winning strong Republican and Democratic support in a Congress tangled in partisan disputes.
As WRRDA reaches its one-year mark, industry officials point to some successes, especially regarding its higher spending targets from the Harbor Maintenance and Inland Waterways trust funds. But in other areas, WRRDA follow-through has been weaker. Few of the statute's 34 major authorized projects have received any appropriations or are in line to get them next year. Moreover, new WRRDA-launched innovative-finance programs are still at the starting gate.