The push to deepen the Savannah harbor has been in limbo for years. Now it must feel like the floodgates have finally opened.

Days after Vice President Joe Biden said the dredging would happen “come hell or high water,” the chair of the House committee handling a bill that would clear the way for digging to begin predicted “it’s going to pass the second week of October.”

That’s a tall order, particularly with a partial government shutdown looming and a raging fight over the Affordable Care Act’s funding. But Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said the so-called WRDA bill will reach a vote the week of Oct. 7.

“We’ll pass it out and get it to the Senate. I know how important it is to Savannah and Georgia, and it’s important to the entire nation. To me, this is a jobs bill, to help manufacturers get their products to the world.”

He appeared with Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Savannah, at a Georgia Tech Research Institute transportation summit on Wednesday. He ducked a question on whether he would endorse Kingston’s Senate bid (two other House lawmakers are also running) but credited the Savannah lawmaker with “beating on me the last couple of years to make sure this moves forward.”

“He’s the right guy in the right place in Washington to make sure it moves forward,” said Shuster.

The feds signed off on the deepening this year, but Congress has to first clear a spending cap placed on the project in 1999. The Senate has already passed its version of the legislation.

Kingston is already eyeing the next challenge: Getting Washington to kick in for the $662 million project. He suggested Biden has ample reason to back the dredging with 2016 in his sights. 

“The Vice President put his stamp on it. Now we need the vice president to make a phone call and make sure Savannah is a priority with the president,” he said. “And I think he has a certain motivation to look good on this project.”

At a summit in Savannah, Gov. Nathan Deal struck the same chord.  

“Those are all good signs coming out of the administration and I hope they will translate those good words into dollars,” Deal told reporters after a speech to the International Agribusiness Conference and Expo.