A bill that contains provisions to expand Vicksburg National Military Park is waiting for President Obama’s signature.
The National Defense Authorization Act, which contains authorization for the park to acquire 10,000 acres in Hinds and Claiborne counties, passed Congress Friday, Dec. 12 and the president is expected to sign it in the coming days.
“We have no reason to believe he’s not going to sign it,” Vicksburg National Military Park Superintendent Mike Madell said Thursday.
The bill just landed on the president’s desk Friday, according to Whitehouse.gov.
The 1,648-page document had to be printed and bound before it makes its way to the White House, which could be cause for delay in its passage and reaching the Oval Office.
Within the $585 billion spending measure is authorization for Vicksburg National Military Park to purchase land on the Champion Hill, Port Gibson and Raymond battlefields. Those three land battles preceded the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg in late spring and summer 1863.
The park expansion was sponsored by U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker. Land on the Port Gibson battlefield is mostly owned by the State of Mississippi and includes the Shaifer House.
In Raymond, the majority of the battlefield is owned by the nonprofit group Friends of Raymond. In 2013, the battlefield completed its lines of canons, making it one of the few Civil War sites in the country to have the same number of guns on site as it did during the war.
The Champion Hill Battlefield includes land that is owned by the state and private individuals. Much of the battlefield there belongs to Sid Champion V, whose ancestors owned the plantation where some of the battle took place.
An attempt to reach Champion Thursday was unsuccessful.
The Champion Hill site also includes the Coker House on Mississippi 467, three miles east of Edwards. The house currently belongs to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Grand Gulf Military Park, which is a state-run agency, was not included in the acquisition measure.
Though it holds great importance statewide, expansion of the park appears on page 1,285 of the bill, which also includes $5 billion in funding to fight the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State.
Expanding the park wasn’t without its opponents. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., objected to the inclusion of a number of package land deal swaps that were added late into the budgeting process.
Before the final vote, Coburn said the land deals represented “the worst of Washington.”