The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Continuing Authorities Program (CAP) is a group of nine water resource related authorities contained in several different laws. The purpose of the CAP is to plan, design, and construct water resources projects of limited scope and complexity. Unlike General Investigation (GI) studies, CAP projects do not require project-specific authorization from Congress. There are four CAP authorities specific to the Albuquerque District. They are listed in the table below.

All projects in this program include a feasibility phase and an implementation phase. Planning activities, such as development of alternative plans to achieve the project goals, initial design and cost estimating, environmental analyses, and real estate evaluations are performed during the feasibility phase to develop enough information to decide whether to implement the project.

The feasibility phase is initially federally funded up to $100,000. Any remaining feasibility phase costs are shared 50/50 with the non-federal sponsor after executing a feasibility cost sharing agreement (FCSA).

The final design, preparation of contract plans and specifications, permitting, real estate acquisition, project contracting and construction, and any other activities required to construct or implement the approved project are completed during the implementation phase. The Corps and the non-federal sponsor sign a project partnership agreement (PPA) near the beginning of the implementation phase and the cost are shared based off the authorizing legislation for that section. 

All CAP projects require a non-federal sponsor – typically a local agency such as a city or county. For some types of projects, non-profits may be the non-federal sponsor. There are limits to the allowable federal cost-share for each CAP project. The federal limit per project is $10 million for all authorities. For projects with a federal limit of $10 million, the maximum total cost of the project is usually about $15 million. Projects that cannot be completed within the applicable CAP cost limit are not eligible for federal funding under this program. Those projects may, however, be eligible for federal funding through other USACE programs.