Strengthen America’s Waterways and Boating Access
Tell Congress to pass WRDA with critical recreational boating provisions from the Senate bill

Access is the foundation of recreational boating. Boaters depend on well-maintained ramps and docks, navigable waterways, and marinas equipped to serve their communities. Yet aging facilities, deferred maintenance, limited ramp parking, and outdated federal policies are making that access harder across the country.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) is bipartisan legislation Congress considers every two years to authorize U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects and direct how the Corps—which currently manages roughly 400 lake and river projects, 3,732 boat ramps, and more than 107,000 marina slips—builds, maintains, and improves America’s water resources infrastructure.

This year’s WRDA legislation is a major opportunity to improve the recreational infrastructure millions of Americans rely on by reforming permitting, encouraging greater investment in public access, improving policies that support recreation, and sustaining investment in our waterways.

House and Senate committees recently advanced their respective WRDA bills unanimously.  Both the House and Senate includes provisions reaffirming recreation as a core Corps mission. In particular, however, the Senate bill would modernize real estate policies and improve lease terms so marinas and other businesses can invest with greater certainty; align Corps recreation data with other federal databases so boaters can more easily find public access points; and advance efforts to reinvest recreation fees at the sites where they are collected, helping local managers address maintenance and upgrades faster.

Write your member of Congress and urge them to pass WRDA 2026 with critical recreational boating provisions.