The financial future of Charleston's Project Seahawk brightened Monday when the Senate approved a budget amendment restoring $27 million in federal funding for the port security task force.

The change still must be approved by the House, said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Seahawk supporter who introduced the amendment.

The Justice Department, which oversees Project Seahawk through the U.S. Attorney, had proposed canceling $27 million in appropriations earmarked for the counterterrorism program starting Oct. 1, according to a document outlining the agency's major budget cuts.

Earlier this month, Graham said he was "shocked" by that recommendation, as were local port and law enforcement officials who participate in the collaborative multiagency program.

"Project Seahawk is on the cutting edge in how we should address the security problems facing our ports," the South Carolina Republican said Monday.

Launched about three years ago, Seahawk is the nation's first and only collaborative counterterrorism task force set up to root out and respond to potential threats in U.S. waters and at U.S. ports, where the country is said to be highly vulnerable to terrorists and other international criminals.

One of its main focuses is to ensure that none of the roughly 5,000 shipping containers that come through the Port of Charleston on a typical day is stuffed with a dirty bomb or other weapon of mass destruction.

Graham's budget amendment would restore full funding for Seahawk.

"Project Seahawk is not only important to Charleston but the nation as a whole," Graham said.

Participants in Seahawk's "unified command" include dozens of security experts from more than 50 local, state and federal agencies, as well as private-sector contractors. Every day, at an undisclosed high-tech operations center, representatives from each group meet to exchange and analyze information about ship movements in and around Charleston, the nation's fourth-busiest container port and the second-busiest on the East Coast.

The potential loss of its funding has fueled letters of protest from at least two local law enforcement officials. The Coast Guard has told participants it would try to keep as much of the task force intact as it could if Seahawk's budget is eliminated.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, a likely Democratic candidate in the 2008 presidential election, is scheduled to tour Seahawk's operations center Wednesday during a visit to the Lowcountry. Biden has introduced legislation that would provide funding to replicate the project in ports throughout the country.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach John McDermott at jmcdermott@postandcourier.com or 937-5572.