A bill passed Thursday by the U.S. Senate seeks to boost funding for a number of important Tennessee projects, including the Chickamauga Lock, a uranium processing facility at the National Laboratories, and the Oak Ridge Cleanup.
The measure, which would bump up funding for the Office of Science by 38 percent compared with the last five years, passed by a 71-23 vote and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for approval.
“This is an important bill for our country and for Tennessee,” reads a Thursday news release from U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
Lamar, who serves as the Senate’s Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee chairman, called the funding bill “the best-kept secret in Washington. Thursday’s passage of the measure marks five consecutive years of record funding for national laboratories and supercomputing passing through the Senate, the release states.
The bill includes: