HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - A bill that would help preserve the Gullah and Geechee cultures from North Carolina to Florida has been approved by the U.S. House and now heads to the Senate.

The Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Act, sponsored by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., would establish five cultural centers in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina and fund cultural preservation grants up to $1 million a year for 10 years.

A similar bill was passed by the House and Senate last year, but the session ended before the bill became law. Clyburn again expects it will receive Senate support.

"It passed the last time and I think it will pass this time," said Clyburn, who will work with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on the Senate version. "The question is what form it will come back in."

The Gullah and Geechee people descended from African slaves who settled on isolated sea islands and marsh areas between Wilmington, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla., in the 19th century. The culture is known as Geechee in Florida and Georgia and Gullah in the Carolinas.

Clyburn sponsored the bill last year after he secured funding for a study by the National Park Service that found the Gullah and Geechee cultures were endangered.