More than six years after U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn began pushing for federal recognition and support of the unique Gullah-Geechee culture found in the Lowcountry and neighboring coastal areas, he is just one signature away from success.

The U.S. Senate approved the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Act on Friday, and it's on its way to President Bush's desk.

"This is a very emotional day for me," Clyburn said in a statement. "My heart today is with those who belong to the Gullah-Geechee community. I hope their prayer houses rock with hymns of jubilation upon hearing the news that the U.S. Congress believes their culture and communities have value and are worth protecting."

Clyburn thanked Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for his support, and Graham in turn thanked his fellow senators for their help in preserving part of South Carolina's heritage.

Clyburn, D-S.C., first introduced the legislation two years ago, and while it passed both the House and Senate that session, Congress adjourned before it could become law. He reintroduced it last year.

The bill would establish a Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor stretching from North Carolina to Florida -the states where African, Caribbean and European influences uniquely blended during colonial times. Gullah culture continued to thrive on isolated sea islands, such as Johns and Wadmalaw and Hilton Head islands, but new bridges and development threaten to erode, if not erase, the culture.

If Bush signs the bill into law, a new commission would be created to help federal, state and local governments manage the corridor and help protect its sites, historical data and artifacts.

The federal government would provide $1 million a year for 10 years to groups working to preserve aspects of the culture, including its folklore, arts, crafts and music. For instance, nurseries could receive grants to increase the cultivation of sweetgrass, the basket-making material that is getting tougher to find as development spreads along the coast.

The bill also would establish a Coastal Heritage Center at the Penn Center on St. Helena Island and possibly other heritage centers.

Before Clyburn introduced the act, he secured money for a study of Gullah-Geechee culture, and researcher Cynthia Porcher worked on that study on behalf of the National Park Service and examined an area within 30 miles of the coastline. She listed praise houses, cemeteries, schools, settlements, even large trees where Gullahs once met. She particularly focused on Beaufort, Charleston and Georgetown counties and Glynn and McIntosh counties in Georgia.

The bill also contained the Southern Campaign of the Revolution Heritage Area Study Act, which calls for a study on designating certain South Carolina counties, cities, and public sites as part of a Southern Campaign of the Revolution Heritage Area.

Graham said the study area will include all or parts of the following counties: Anderson, Pickens, Greenville, Spartanburg, Cherokee, Greenwood, Laurens, Union, York, Chester, Darlington, Florence, Chesterfield, Marlboro, Fairfield, Richland, Lancaster, Kershaw, Sumter, Orangeburg, Georgetown, Dorchester, Colleton, Charleston, Beaufort, Calhoun, Clarendon and Williamsburg.

South Carolina has more than 200 sites where Revolutionary War skirmishes or battles took place -more than any other state.