Sponsors (6)
Official title: To require the Corps of Engineers to take certain actions with respect to rental amounts and administrative fees charged to certain marinas, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 27, 2026 by James Comer · Last progress January 27, 2026
The bill lowers and stabilizes costs and increases fee transparency for marina operators and helps preserve public marina access, but it risks lowering worker pay, imposing new compliance costs on small operators, and reducing Corps revenue flexibility.
Small marina operators: lower assessed rent and greater predictability because covered receipts used for rent are capped (no greater than 1%), existing leases are largely preserved, and the Corps must publish a standardized fee schedule with clear caps.
Rural and urban recreational users: continued marina access and services because concessionaires help maintain and operate Corps facilities that support recreational use.
Federal taxpayers: potential value from commercial leases because leases can provide direct financial benefits (revenue) and improved facility management to the Federal Government.
Marina employees and related workers: potential pay reductions because covered leases may permit paying only the federal minimum wage, which can be lower than local wage standards.
Small marina operators: increased compliance and operating costs because uniform administrative fees (if implemented) and the $50,000 cap on major reviews can impose burdensome expenses, especially for smaller operators planning expansions.
Renters and recreational users: possible reduced services or higher prices because greater fee coordination and shifted operational burdens onto concessionaires could lead operators to cut services or raise user fees.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Corps to standardize and cap marina administrative fees, exclude certain receipts from rent calculations (≤1% applied), limit wage mandates, and issue a final rule within 1 year.
Limits how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can set rents, administrative fees, and lease periods for marinas operating on Corps-managed lands and reservoirs. It requires the Corps to exclude certain marina receipts when calculating graduated rent, to adopt a standardized Corps‑wide administrative fee schedule with dollar caps, to refrain from charging fees for routine renewals/transfers for non-covered marinas, and to issue a final implementing rule within one year while largely preserving existing leases. The bill also inserts new lease-period language into the federal marina lease statute and restricts requiring marina operators to pay employees above the federal minimum wage except where higher rates are already required by existing federal law; the Corps must publish the fee schedule online and apply a cap of not more than 1% to a defined category of receipts for rent calculations.