Budget Overview

There are two sources of funds for the NRDAR Program – “appropriated funds” received annually from the Congress and “recoveries” received from the entities responsible for natural resource injuries. These funds are maintained and managed in the DOI Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Fund (Restoration Fund).

In February of each year, the President sends a budget request to Congress listing the funds that the government needs to operate its various programs for the following year. The NRDAR Program is no exception. The Program's budget is comprised of four components: damage assessment, restoration support, inland oil spill preparedness, and program management. The most recent budget request is below and can be found in its entirety in the 2025 Budget Justification.

Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request
Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request to Congress
(Dollars in Thousands)		 Total: 8,037

In addition, the Program receives money, called “damages” in the NRDA Restoration legal setting, from responsible parties. These recovered damages include funds used to restore the injured natural resources, as well as funds recovered as a reimbursement for the cost of performing damage assessments. The money received from responsible parties for restoration of natural resource injuries is used to address the injuries from a specific damage assessment case. Such recoveries are used for the planning, implementation, management, and monitoring of projects to restore, replace, or acquire the equivalent of the injured resources. 

Recovered assessment costs supplement the appropriated damage assessment money and can be used anywhere nation-wide to address new or continuing damage assessment cases. Over the past five years, the Program has utilized between one and two million dollars annually in recovered assessment costs. Additionally, in some instances where the Department is conducting a damage assessment with cooperative responsible parties, funds may be provided in advance by the responsible parties to cover the costs of agreed-to studies and activities conducted by the Department and its bureaus.


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