Congress increases oversight of Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund

Key Takeaways

On February 3, Congress passed new funding and authority for an audit and expanded oversight of the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund, which houses federal funds for recovery from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. The provision was included in the Financial Services-General Government appropriations bill (FSGG), which was one of five included in a minibus package passed by Congress (P.L. 119-75). 

What is the RESTORE Act?

In response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, Congress passed the RESTORE Act in 2012 to allocate recovery funding to affected communities in the Gulf region. The law directs 80 percent of penalties paid by the spill’s responsible parties into the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund. A portion of that money is distributed to state and local governments in affected areas, including direct funding to counties in Florida and parishes in Louisiana. 

While more than $1.2 billion has been made available for direct distribution so far, only $819 million has been obligated to projects and state and local governments due to bottlenecks within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which oversees the Trust Fund. 

Next steps for counties

The RESTORE Act direct funding for counties is currently organized as a grant program, which has posed a burden as counties seek timely distribution of money from the Trust Fund. The FSGG provision is a meaningful step towards reducing unnecessary delays and streamlining the disbursement of resources for recovery and restoration projects. 

Counties welcome efforts to ensure that Direct Component funding is distributed in full , and encourage Treasury to begin a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement process which would improve project funding delivery. NACo will continue to monitor actions relating to the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund.