The House voted a near-unanimous 417-3 Wednesday to approve $8.2 billion worth of plans for dams, harbors, river navigation and other water projects nationwide.
The bill would clear a final bureaucratic hurdle to the long-sought Savannah harbor deepening by raising the project's authorized spending limit nearly $200 million to the current cost estimate of $652 million.
Georgia's 14 House members all voted to pass the bill. A different version has already passed the Senate, which must agree on a final version with the House.
Savannah and other East Coast ports want deeper harbors to accommodate supersized cargo ships expected to begin arriving through an expanded Panama Canal in 2015.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/10/267109