SIOUX FALLS, S.D.
A Senate spending bill that passed out of a subcommittee Tuesday would provide $30 million to the Lewis and Clark regional water system, a project designed to pipe Missouri River water to Sioux Falls and other communities, said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D.
President Bush's budget proposal earlier this year requested no new money for the project, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Johnson, a member of the energy and water appropriations subcommittee, said the money will keep the taps running in three states and economic development thriving.
The House Appropriations Committee late last month approved $25 million for the project, according to Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.
Differences in funding levels between the chambers are typically worked out in conference committees.
The Lewis and Clark system is a partnership of 15 cities and five rural water districts in South Dakota, Iowa and southwestern Minnesota that would get treated water from wells near the Missouri River through 337 miles of underground pipe.
The project received almost $27 million last year after Bush proposed $15 million. He left the project out of this year's proposal, which outlines spending for the 2009 budget year starting Oct. 1.
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