House committee adds to Chickamauga Lock funding

House committee adds to Chickamauga Lock funding

May 23, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress would provide more money needed to keep the construction of the replacement for the aging Chickamauga Lock on track under a bill passed by a House spending panel last week.

The Appropriations Committee's bill provides $10 million for construction and nearly $2.5 million more for operation and maintenance of a new lock.

Congress has authorized a 110-foot by 600-foot replacement structure for the lock, which the Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority estimate can continue operating until 2010.

But for the second year in a row, President Bush provided no money for the structure in his budget proposal.

The Senate has not yet passed its appropriations bill. But the lock has been a pet project of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), who helped secure $17 million for it last year.

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