Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE <SUBAGY>Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Parts 207 and 326</CFR> <RIN>RIN 0710-AB57</RIN> <SUBJECT>Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense (DoD). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is issuing this final rule to adjust its civil monetary penalties (CMP) under the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1922 (RHA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the National Fishing Enhancement Act (NFEA) to account for inflation. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on August 8, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For the RHA portion, please contact Mr. Joseph R. Wilson, 202-761-7697 or by email at <E T="03">joseph.r.wilson@usace.army.mil,</E> or for the CWA and NFEA portion, please contact Mr. Matt Wilson, 202-761-5856 or by email at <E T="03">Matthew.S.Wilson@usace.army.mil</E> or access the Corps Regulatory Home Page at <E T="03">https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Regulatory-Program-and-Permits/.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, Public Law 101-410, codified at 28 U.S.C. 2461, as amended, requires agencies to annually adjust the level of CMP for inflation to improve their effectiveness and maintain their deterrent effect, as required by the Federal Civil Penalties Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, Public Law 114-74, sec. 701, November 2, 2015 (“Inflation Adjustment Act”). With this rule, the new statutory maximum penalty levels listed in Table 1 will apply to all statutory civil penalties assessed on or after the effective date of this rule. Table 1 shows the calculation of the 2025 annual inflation adjustment based on the guidance provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) (see December 17, 2024, Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Subject: Implementation of Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2025, Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015). The OMB provided to agencies the cost-of-living adjustment multiplier for 2025, based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the month of October 2024, not seasonally adjusted, which is 1.02598. Agencies are to adjust “the maximum civil monetary penalty or the range of minimum and maximum civil monetary penalties, as applicable, for each civil monetary penalty by the cost-of-living adjustment.” For 2025, agencies multiply each applicable penalty by the multiplier, 1.02598, and round to the nearest dollar. The multiplier should be applied to the most recent penalty amount, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the one that includes the 2024 annual inflation adjustment. <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s50,r50,r50,12,r50"> <TTITLE>Table 1</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Citation</CHED> <CHED H="1">Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) amount established by law</CHED> <CHED H="1">2024 CMP amount in effect prior to this rulemaking</CHED> <CHED H="1">CMP amount as of August 8, 2025</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Rivers and Harbors Act of 1922 (33 U.S.C. 555)</ENT> <ENT>$2,500 per violation</ENT> <ENT>$6,975 per violation</ENT> <ENT>1.02598</ENT> <ENT>$7,156 per violation.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">CWA, 33 U.S.C. 1319(g)(2)(A)</ENT> <ENT>$10,000 per violation, with a maximum of $25,000</ENT> <ENT>$26,686 per violation, with a maximum of $66,713</ENT> <ENT>1.02598</ENT> <ENT>$27,379 per violation, with a maximum of $68,446.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">CWA, 33 U.S.C. 1344(s)(4)</ENT> <ENT>Maximum of $25,000 per day for each violation</ENT> <ENT>Maximum of $66,713 per day for each violation</ENT> <ENT>1.02598</ENT> <ENT>Maximum of $68,446 per day for each violation.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">National Fishing Enhancement Act, 33 U.S.C. 2104(e)</ENT> <ENT>Maximum of $10,000 per violation</ENT> <ENT>Maximum of $29,221 per violation</ENT> <ENT>1.02598</ENT> <ENT>Maximum of $29,980 per violation.</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> Section 4 of the Inflation Adjustment Act directs Federal agencies to publish annual penalty inflation adjustments. In accordance with section 553 of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), many rules are subject to notice and comment and are effective no earlier than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Section 4(b)(2) of the Inflation Adjustment Act further provides that each agency shall make the annual inflation adjustments “notwithstanding section 553” of the APA. According to the December 2024 OMB guidance issued to Federal agencies on the implementation of the 2025 annual adjustment, the phrase “notwithstanding section 553” means that, “the public procedure the APA generally requires—notice, an opportunity for comment, and a delay in effective date—is not required for agencies to issue regulations implementing the annual adjustment.” Consistent with the language of the Inflation Adjustment Act and OMB's implementation guidance, this rule is not subject to notice and opportunity for public comment or a delay in effective date. This rule adjusts the value of current statutory civil penalties to reflect and keep pace with the levels originally set by Congress when the statutes were enacted, as required by the Inflation Adjustment Act. This rule will apply prospectively to penalty assessments beginning on the effective date of this final rule. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Regulatory Procedures</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Plain Language</HD> In compliance with the principles in the President's Memorandum of June 1, 1998, regarding plain language, this preamble is written using plain language. The use of “we” in this notice refers to the Corps and the use of “you” refers to the reader. We have also used the active voice, short sentences, and common everyday terms except for necessary technical terms. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Executive Order 12866, “Regulatory Planning and Review,” as Amended by Executive Order 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review”</HD> This rule has been designated not significant under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 13563. Moreover, this final rule makes nondiscretionary adjustments to existing CMP in accordance with the Inflation Adjustment Act and OMB guidance. The Corps, therefore, did not consider alternatives and does not have the flexibility to alter the adjustments of the civil monetary penalty amounts as provided in this rule. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Executive Order 14192, “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation”</HD> Executive Order 14192 establishes a regulatory cap for Fiscal Year 2025 and requires agencies to identify 10 existing regulations to be repealed unless the regulation meets certain exemptions. This final rule is not an Executive Order 14192 regulatory action under OMB M-25-20, “Guidance Implementing Section 3 of Executive Order 14192,” because it does not impose any more than <E T="03">de minimis</E> regulatory costs. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Public Law 96-511, “Paperwork Reduction Act” (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35)</HD> The DoD determined that provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, and its implementing regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, do not apply to this rule because there are no new or revised recordkeeping or reporting requirements. This action merely increases the level of statutory civil penalties that could be imposed in the context of a Federal civil administrative enforcement action or civil judicial case for violations of Corps-administered statutes and implementing regulations. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Executive Order 13132, “Federalism”</HD> Executive Order 13132 establishes certain requirements that an agency must meet when it promulgates a rule that imposes substantial direct requirement costs on State and local governments, preempts State law, or otherwise has federalism implications. This final rule will not have a substantial effect on State and local governments. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Public Law 96-354, “Regulatory Flexibility Act” (5 U.S.C. Chapter 6)</HD> The Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) certified that this rule is not subject to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601, <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) because it would not, if promulgated, have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Because notice of proposed rulemaking and opportunity for comment are not required pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553, or any other law, the analytical requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act are inapplicable. Therefore, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, as amended, does not require the Corps to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (2 U.S.C. Chapter 25)</HD> Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1532) requires agencies to assess anticipated costs and benefits before issuing any rule the mandates of which require spending in any year of $100 million in 1995 dollars, updated annually for inflation. This rule will not mandate any requirements for State, local, or tribal governments, nor will it affect private sector costs. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Public Law 104-113, “National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (15 U.S.C. Chapter 7)</HD> Section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA), Public Law 104-113 (15 U.S.C. 272 note), directs us to use voluntary consensus standards in our regulatory activities, unless to do so would be inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impractical. Voluntary consensus standards are technical standards ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 17k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━