Every two years, Congress takes up the Water Resources Development Act — a bipartisan bill that authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to undertake navigation, flood control, and environmental restoration projects across the country. WRDA does not appropriate money directly, but it is the essential first step in unlocking billions in federal investment for ports, inland waterways, levees, coastal storm protection, and water supply infrastructure. In 2026, that process is well underway, and the construction industry is watching closely.

According to the National Waterways Conference's May 15, 2026 update, both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have received project requests and are now working to develop draft bills. The Senate received over 1,200 requests and the House over 2,000 — many overlapping — reflecting the extraordinary breadth of local and regional water infrastructure needs across the country. Current expectations are that draft bills could be ready in mid-June, with full committee action possible in late June and floor action in the June-July timeframe, though that timeline may shift based on other Congressional priorities.

What WRDA Does — and Why It Matters for Construction

The Army Corps of Engineers carries out its civil works mission — navigation, flood damage reduction, and ecosystem restoration — primarily through projects authorized by Congress in WRDA legislation. WRDA 2026 will be the seventh consecutive biennial WRDA enacted since Congress returned to a regular two-year authorization cycle in 2014. The previous bill, WRDA 2024 (signed in early 2025), authorized $10.7 billion for 21 construction projects and 200 new feasibility studies.

WRDA 2026 is expected to authorize a new round of projects and studies, including deep-draft navigation improvements at several major ports, inland waterway lock and dam rehabilitation, and new feasibility studies for flood risk management and ecosystem restoration. As of this writing, confirmed projects eligible for authorization include the Columbia River Turning Basins Navigation Improvements (Washington and Oregon) and the Surf City, Onslow and Pender Counties Coastal Storm Risk Management project (North Carolina), with fewer than ten Chief's Reports expected to be ready for the final bill.

The construction industry's stake in WRDA extends well beyond the projects directly authorized. The Army Corps construction backlog exceeds $100 billion, according to the Associated General Contractors of America — a figure that represents decades of deferred navigation improvements, flood control upgrades, and dam rehabilitations. Each new WRDA bill provides the legal authority to eventually fund additional projects from that backlog, and Congress has been moving to increase Corps construction appropriations in recent years.

FY2026 Corps Construction Spending: A Significant Increase

The appropriations picture for the Army Corps in FY2026 is notable in its own right. A July 2025 House Appropriations Committee draft bill proposed $9.57 billion in total Corps civil works funding for FY2026 — including $2.55 billion for construction, up from $1.85 billion enacted in FY2025, according to the National Waterways Conference's July 2025 analysis. Operations and maintenance would reach $6.14 billion under the draft, and Mississippi River and Tributaries spending would rise to $490 million. The increase in the construction account — up more than $700 million from the prior year — signals genuine legislative intent to accelerate project delivery.

Specific projects highlighted in the administration's FY2026 civil works work plan include the TJ O'Brien Lock and Dam on the Illinois Waterway ($122.9 million), the Upper Ohio, Allegheny, and Beaver Counties project in Pennsylvania ($44 million), the Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River ($32.19 million), and the Houston Ship Channel ($33.4 million). Dam safety projects include $283.7 million for the Rough River, Kentucky project and $65.3 million for the Pipestem Lake, North Dakota project. Combined, these represent a meaningful acceleration of critical navigation and flood risk infrastructure that has been in the pipeline for years.

What the Construction Industry Wants from WRDA 2026

AGC has submitted formal priorities for WRDA 2026, focusing on accelerating the project backlog, preserving private-sector competition in dredging, and avoiding prescriptive workforce mandates that could complicate project delivery. In its public recommendations, AGC urged Congress to keep the Corps focused on its core construction backlog, noting that construction materials still face elevated prices and long lead times, and that expanded domestic content requirements could create additional cost and schedule pressures.

The dredging industry is particularly attentive to WRDA provisions around harbor maintenance. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund — funded by a 0.125% tax on the value of imports and domestic cargo shipped through ports — has accumulated a large balance that Congress has historically been slow to appropriate. The House FY2026 draft proposes $3.38 billion from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for operations and maintenance, a significant figure that, if enacted, would support maintenance dredging at commercial ports throughout the country.

The American Society of Civil Engineers — which grades U.S. infrastructure categories in its biennial Report Card — gave Ports a grade of "B" in its 2025 edition (the highest of any infrastructure category). Inland Waterways received a "C-" grade, reflecting years of deferred lock and dam rehabilitation. ASCE has urged Congress to include in WRDA 2026 reauthorization of the High Hazard Potential Dam Rehabilitation Grant Program and the National Levee Safety Program, both of which expired and require renewed congressional authorization to continue.

The Broader Water Infrastructure Moment

WRDA 2026 is advancing alongside a broader reckoning with the nation's water infrastructure needs. The IIJA water programs — $50 billion in Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund supplemental funding — expire after FY2026, and Congress must decide whether to reauthorize them before the authorization lapses September 30, 2026. The National League of Cities has urged lawmakers to act, noting that the IIJA's water allocations provided the single largest federal investment in clean water history and that many communities are still in the process of accessing FY2024 and FY2025 funds.

EPA's 2024 needs assessments estimate that wastewater and stormwater infrastructure requires $630 billion in investment over 20 years, and drinking water systems need $625 billion — figures that dwarf available federal funding even in a strong year. WRDA 2026 alone will not close those gaps, but the combination of authorized Corps projects, SRF funding, WIFIA loans, and direct appropriations is moving more water infrastructure work through the construction pipeline than at any time in recent memory.

For contractors, the WRDA process is worth tracking even before a bill is signed. Projects that receive Chief's Reports — the final Army Corps engineering and economic analysis required for congressional authorization — are candidates for funding in the annual Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. Firms that understand which projects are advancing toward authorization can better position for the solicitations that will follow once funding is appropriated.

Sources

National Waterways Conference — WRDA 2026 Status Update (May 15, 2026)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — Water Resources Development Act Overview
Associated General Contractors of America — WRDA 2026 Recommendations
National Waterways Conference — FY2026 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Draft Analysis (July 2025)
Congressional Research Service — FY2026 Appropriations for EPA Water Infrastructure Programs (March 2026)
National League of Cities — Cities Look to the Future on Water Infrastructure Funding (December 2025)
American Society of Civil Engineers — WRDA 2026 Advocacy Priorities