Steve Scalise

Credit House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, for an extra $47.4 million this year for coastal restoration and hurricane protection in Louisiana. And credit former Sen. Mary Landrieu for securing the original funding stream to which Scalise now has added.

Now the onus is on Louisiana’s state officials to make sure the money is used wisely, based on sound science rather than on politics.

The money comes from the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 (GOMESA), which now sends up to 37.5% of earnings from the federal government’s Gulf energy production to the four states off whose shores the production occurs. Landrieu spent the better part of nine years painstakingly building congressional support for the act, for which she was the chief sponsor. Its passage was one of the signature triumphs of her three terms in office.

In last year’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Scalise worked hard to add language increasing the cap on the amount of money to be shared with those states. Louisiana’s portion increased from $156.3 million in 2025 to $203.7 million this year. That’s more than a 30% increase.

The more generous amounts stemming from the higher cap are slated to last through 2034 — an entirely fair arrangement, considering that the four Gulf states do so much to support the exploration while suffering the risks involved. Frankly, there should be no hard numerical cap at all, but considering how much political competition rages for every possible federal dollar, the larger outlay and indeed GOMESA’s very existence provide testament to the persuasive abilities through the years of Scalise, Landrieu and their Gulf-state colleagues.

Most of Louisiana’s money goes to its Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, while some of it goes directly to parish governments for local projects. GOMESA grants in the past have gone to everything from marsh creation to shoreline stabilization, levee improvements, barrier-island restoration and drainage projects.

Even with all of these benefits, however, various entities in Louisiana constantly fight about exactly how to spend the money. Just in the past year, Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration canceled two river diversion projects on which hundreds of millions of dollars already had been spent. The state’s Coastal Master Plan was supposed to use sound science to guide the spending from GOMESA and other sources, while warding off such stops and starts.

It would behoove policymakers to use hard data, not political pressure, to determine how these extra funds are spent. That was the original and essential promise of the master plan. For Congress to lift the GOMESA cap entirely, or extend the larger payments beyond 2034, the state will need to show it is using the money wisely and well.