In December of 2014, the Chesapeake Bay Accountability and Recovery Act (CBARA) was signed  into law. This act requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit an annual report on federal and state funding toward environmental restoration in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Under this act, the OMB was required to include all Chesapeake Bay restoration activities that cost at least $300,000 during the first three years (2014-2017). Starting in 2018 and for every year thereafter, the report must include all Chesapeake Bay activities that cost at least $100,000. 

In January of 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published its ninth Chesapeake Bay Restoration Spending Crosscut (dated October 2024), which reports that state and federal partners budgeted approximately $2 billion for watershed restoration in fiscal 2024. Due to constraints around time and resources, in any year, budgeted values do not equal awarded values or spent values, and the estimates this crosscut provides may differ from the funding that ultimately supports environmental restoration. 

The Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA), signed into law in November of 2021, resulted in a historic investment of federal funds that will provide important support to restoration of the Chesapeake Bay watershed for many years. Fiscal year 2024 marks the third of five years of dedicated IIJA funding, described separately below. 

Investments in restoration benefit the whole Chesapeake Bay watershed and support fishing, tourism, recreation, real estate, agriculture and shipping economies. An analysis from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, for instance, found that putting the “pollution diet” in place—which is just one piece of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement—would provide annual benefits worth $129.7 billion: more than 60 times the investments cited in the 2024 Chesapeake Bay Restoration Spending Crosscut.  

NOAA’s 2019 Fisheries Economics of the United States Report highlights some of these economic benefits. In 2019, for instance, the commercial seafood industry accounted for $6 billion in sales, $1.4 billion in income and an estimated 42,000 jobs in Maryland and Virginia. According to national expenditures detailed in the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation report and based on the percentage of the U.S. population in 2023 residing in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, annual wildlife watching expenditures were an estimated $13.7 billion, annual recreational fishing expenditures were an estimated $5.4 billion, and annual hunting expenditures were an estimated $2.5 billion. 

Federal Funding

According to the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Spending Crosscut, six of the seven agencies that make up the Federal Leadership Committee for the Chesapeake Bay—including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security and the Interior—allocated $583 million in watershed restoration in fiscal 2024, separately from the IIJA funds. You can download more information about how these agencies allocated these funds or open the Spending Crosscut to review the caveats that may be associated with the totals federal agencies reported to the Office of Management and Budget.
 

Federal agency funding for watershed restoration in fiscal 2024 marked a 13% increase from the allocations of the previous fiscal year. This total is 1.4% higher than the fiscal 2025 President’s Budget. 

More than two-thirds ($62.4 million) of the $92 million Congressional allocation to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program was awarded through grant programs that provide support to state governments, local governments and other partners to help them meet the goals of  the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL). The remaining Chesapeake Bay Program funds support other important Bay Program activities: the coordination of data collection and scientific research, monitoring and modeling; the operation of the Chesapeake Bay Program Office; reporting on the quality of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and other accountability measures; and outreach to enhance environmental stewardship. The EPA, through other organization units, provides funding for jurisdictions that contribute to Chesapeake Bay restoration (e.g., non-point source grants, pollution control grants and infrastructure assistance grants). 

Under the USDA, the Natural Resources Conservation Service funds conservation easement programs and provides technical and financial assistance to farmers and other private landowners to support the implementation of conservation practices on working lands. The U.S. Forest Service provides technical assistance and project funds to promote the establishment and retention of forests on non-Forest Service lands (through the Forest Stewardship Program), in urban areas (through the Urban and Community Forestry Program) and on conservation easements on forest land (through the Forest Legacy Program). It also provides for the management of National Forests. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Agricultural Research Service, Economic Research Service, Farm Service Agency, National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Office of the Chief Economist provide additional watershed support. 

Under the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funds scientific research in the fields of tidal and coastal fisheries and aquatic habitats (including oyster reefs) and syntheses and analyses to predict and describe ecosystem processes. The agency also funds the development of environmental science education programs, the delivery of advice and technical assistance to decision-makers, the maintenance of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS) and the preparation of coastal communities in protecting natural and human-made infrastructure. 

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) funds regional operations and maintenance that support the prevention of stormwater runoff, upgrades to wastewater treatment plants, water quality monitoring, land conservation, natural resources planning and management, and environmental outreach and stewardship. Under the DoD, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supports small- and large-scale studies and design and construction projects that benefit habitats and fisheries. 

Under the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Geological Survey funds the generation of scientific information about fish, wildlife and their relation to water quality, habitat and land conditions. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds strategic conservation to connect people with nature and create sustainable watershed capable of supporting fish, wildlife and plants. The National Park Service funds the protection of habitat, the creation of public access and the promotion of tourism. 

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

In addition to the total annual appropriations allocated to federal agencies in 2024 ($583.3 million), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act enhanced Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration budgets by $247.8 million across three federal agencies: $235 million for EPA, $835,000 for USDA and $11.8 million for the Department of the Interior. 

Selected EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) IIJA Grants

In 2024, of the $47.6 million in IIJA funds Congressionally allocated to EPA CBPO, EPA awarded $42.5 million to grant programs that directly support restoration and protection efforts of state and local partners. Included in that total, $17.5 million was noncompetitively allocated to the seven Bay watershed jurisdictions through the State Implementation Grants: $15 million for Most Effective Basin grants and $2.5 million for Supplemental Support. The remaining $25 million was awarded to increase funding available through the Small Watershed Grants (SWG) program and the Innovation Nutrient and Sediment Reduction (INSR) grant program.  

Through its administration of the SWG and INSR grant programs, NFWF subawarded $20.8 to local and regional projects throughout the watershed in 2024, including $11.4 million from SWG and $9.4 million from INSR. Additionally, NFWF leveraged an estimated $26 million in funding from other federal agencies, private organizations, and subrecipient match to expand the number and impact of subawards made under the IIJA-funded INSR and SWG programs.  

In addition to these selected programs, additional EPA CBPO IIJA funds were allocated and awarded to competitive grants and interagency agreements to advance progress toward partnership priorities, including the Chesapeake Bay monitoring network.

State Spending

The seven watershed jurisdictions—Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia—reported allocating an estimated $1.45 billion in watershed restoration through state programs in federal fiscal 2024.

Jurisdictional program allocation for watershed restoration in fiscal 2024 was an 11% increase from the allocations of the previous fiscal year. This total is 11% more than the combined estimated fiscal 2025 budget.

Selected EPA CBPO Clean Water Act Grant Funding

In 2024, in addition to receiving appropriations funding from other federal agencies and IIJA funding, the seven Bay watershed jurisdictions received an estimated $42.4 million in noncompetitive grants from the EPA through Section 117(e) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), which is intended to support the jurisdictions implementing the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, meeting the commitments outlined in each jurisdiction’s Watershed Implementation Plan, and monitoring the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Included in this total is $8 million for Congressionally directed Most Effective Basins funding to accelerate progress toward achieving water quality standards. Jurisdictions are required to provide a 1:1 cost share for these funds, resulting in $42.4 million in leveraged funding. 

In addition, in FY2024, EPA awarded $20 million in Congressionally directed funding to the SWG and INSR grant programs, which are administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). Through these grant programs, NFWF subawarded approximately $9.1 million through the SWG program and $8.7 million through the INSR program. Additionally, NFWF subawarded approximately $530,000 in Most Effective Basins funding, which was carried over from a prior fiscal year, to Pennsylvania projects in 2024. NFWF leveraged an estimated $20.7 million in funding from other federal agencies, private organizations and subrecipient matches to expand the number and impact of subawards made under the INSR and SWG programs. 

In addition to these selected programs, additional EPA CBPO CWA funds were allocated and awarded to other partners for Bay restoration. 

These competitively subawarded funds support specific programs and projects and leverage additional funding from other federal programs and private funding sources along with the required jurisdiction match. When adding in these leveraged funds, the total amounts of these selected grants for each jurisdiction in 2024 are: $1.06 million in Delaware, $0.09 million in the District of Columbia, $10.02 million in Maryland, $3.97 million in New York, $12.42 million in Pennsylvania, $11.43 million in Virginia, and $0.09 million in West Virginia. 

These charts summarize the partnership’s funding data and demonstrate the effectiveness of these programs and of EPA CBPO and the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership to pool resources for collective Bay restoration. 

Future Reporting

A call for funding data to support the next Chesapeake Bay Restoration Spending Crosscut will be made in the summer of 2025.