NMMA Celebrates Recreational Boating Priorities in Water Resource Development Act Reauthorization

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On Tuesday, the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee introduced the 2024 reauthorization of the Water Resource Development Act (WRDA) Bill, setting standards and authorizing civil works projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the next two years. This is imperative for supporting sustainable recreational boating access and drives public water access in non-coastal areas. Since 2014, WRDA has been reauthorized on a biennial basis with bipartisan support.

NMMA supported several key provisions of the bill, most noteworthy of which is the LAKES Act, a standalone bill that was introduced by Reps. Westerman (AR-04) and Huffman (CA-01) in the House, and Sens. Cramer (ND) and Heinrich (NM) in the Senate. This bill extended key public land management provisions already in place with other land management agencies to the Corps of Engineers, which would help them through the significant backlog of maintenance projects throughout their portfolio of recreation infrastructure facilities.

Specifically, this provision would allow for retention of collected visitation fees, which are currently not kept by the Corps, as well as the expansion of entities eligible for joint management agreements and public-private partnerships to be able to better manage these facilities and sites. These two pieces work together to create a better working environment for the recreational boating community and anyone else who recreates on public water managed by the Corps of Engineers.

On Wednesday, the bill was reported favorably out of House T&I Committee and is due to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives before the end of the year. NMMA will continue advocating on behalf of the industry as Congress finalizes WRDA to secure adequate funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - the nation's leading provider of public boating access points - and address critical navigation needs at harbors and waterways supporting recreation access.