The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act program (CWPPRA or "Breaux Act") provides for targeted funds to be used for planning and implementing projects that create, protect, restore and enhance wetlands in coastal Louisiana. It was passed in 1990.
As of December 2019, the CWPPRA Program has 222 authorized projects, 113 of which have been constructed. Another 14 projects are under construction, 30 are in the engineering & design phase, & 46 have been deauthorized or transferred to another program. The CWPPRA Program anticipates receiving about $72.8 M in Federal funds for FY21.
The CWPPRA Program is managed by the CWPPRA Task Force. The Task Force is composed of the State of Louisiana, represented by the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities, and five federal agencies:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers administers accounting and tracks project status of all CWPPRA projects. Project Status Reports of all approved CWPPRA projects and projects in progress may be found at the CWPPRA-funded website, www.lacoast.gov. The USACE also constructs those approved CWPPRA projects whenever the USACE is assigned lead agency for that project. All other projects are constructed by one of four other Federal agencies.
The Task Force manages the CWPPRA program and is composed of the following members:
| U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |
Chair, Colonel Cullen Jones |
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
Jeffrey Weller |
| Natural Resource Conservation Service |
Chad Kacir |
| Environmental Protection Agency |
Charles Maguire |
| National Marine Fisheries Service |
Leslie Craig |
| State of Louisiana |
Chip Kline |
To address the projected land loss of coastal Louisiana, large-scale coastal restoration projects, which focus on the restoration of ecosystems, must be constructed. Such projects exceed the funding capacity and authorization of the CWPPRA Program. The Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) initiative, which began in 2001, received authorization in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) to begin to address the need for development and funding of large scale coastal restoration projects.