Federal legislation to recognize the Lawrence area’s “Bleeding Kansas” history is about to face a major test.

The House Subcommittee on National Parks is expected to decide soon whether it will approve a request to designate eastern Kansas and western Missouri counties a “national heritage area” eligible to receive federal dollars to preserve and market the region’s pre-Civil War history.

“That should happen in the next couple of weeks,” said Michelle Schroeder, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., the bill’s primary House sponsor. The other three Kansas congressmen are co-sponsors of the bill.

“I’m optimistic,” said Judy Billings, director of the Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been, and closer than a lot of others are.”

Though the area comprises a large part of Kansas and Missouri, the effort to attract the designation started in Lawrence in late 2001.

The designation, if approved by the House and signed by President Bush, would pump $10 million during the next 15 years to projects such as markers, signs, brochures and museums dedicated to Kansas history, which many scholars say helped spark the Civil War.

Visitors tour the Mine Creek Battlefield near Pleasanton, about 50 miles south of Olathe. A U.S. House of Representatives committee is considering a historic designation for parts of Kansas and Missouri, recognizing the area's role in the start of the Civil War.

The bill was passed in July by the U.S. Senate, after Missouri senators lent their backing in exchange for including Show-Me State counties in the project.

Billings has been to Washington, D.C., several times to lobby for the project. She said there was a fair amount of legislative maneuvering required before final approval of the bill.

“We’ve come a long, long way,” Billings said. “But it’s hard to communicate to the public how complicated it is.”

Deanell Tacha, chief judge of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – one of the early backers of the effort – said Thursday she believed the bill would get a hearing soon.

“We’re hopeful it will happen this spring,” Tacha said. “I don’t think they’re dragging their feet with respect to us.”

Federal officials have expressed skepticism about approving new heritage areas in the face of a growing number of requests. But local leaders are hopeful the “Bleeding Kansas” proposal will pass muster.

“I think they have positive feedback” on the bill, Schroeder said. “They’re hopeful it will pass.”