Fiscal year 2019 construction funding approved by Congress

By Zach Mentz| September 21, 2018

The Fiscal Year 2019 appropriations bill, approved by Congress, is expected to be signed into law by President Trump. Photo: iStock.com/Ron and Patty Thomas

Congress passed a Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 appropriations bill, which is expected to be signed into law by President Trump, providing significant funding for military construction projects through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC); hospital, medical clinic and cemetery projects through the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA); and harbor maintenance, lock, dam, levee and environmental restoration projects through the USACE Civil Works Program.

In total, the bill provides $10.3 billion for military construction projects, an increase of $241 million, or 2.4 percent, from the enacted FY 2018 level.

The bill appropriates $1.6 billion to fund construction, operation and maintenance of military family housing for fiscal year 2019. That $1.6 billion figure is an increase of $173 million from fiscal year 2018 and the same as the president’s FY 2019 budget request.

Major and minor construction within the VA is funded at $1.8 billion. In addition, $2 billion is provided for infrastructure repair, with the funding allocated to both major and minor construction and non-recurring maintenance.

Within the infrastructure total funding, $750 million is targeted for corrections at VA facilities across the country.

The total USACE Civil Works Program is funded at $7 billion, representing an 11 percent increase from last year and the largest amount Congress has ever appropriated to the agency. The construction account receives $2.18 billion, and the operations & maintenance account received a record-level $3.74 billion, which includes $1.55 billion in funding from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and full use of estimated annual revenues of $326.5 million from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.

Information for this article courtesy of the Associated General Contractors of America.