Congress took another step Tuesday toward blocking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from putting in place boating and fishing restrictions below Cumberland River dams.

Following the Senate’s action last week, the House approved a measure preventing the Corps from following through on its plan for the next two years.

When the Corps releases water from the 10 dams it operates on the Cumberland and its tributaries, the water immediately below becomes turbulent.

Since last year, the Corps has worked on a plan to prohibit boats and anglers from getting too close, citing safety as its top priority. And last month, the agency began putting in place signs and buoys warning boaters about the restrictions.

Anglers oppose the restrictions and Republican and Democratic lawmakers from across Tennessee and Kentucky have urged the Corps to compromise and still allow some level of access. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which patrols the Cumberland and its lakes, has vowed not to enforce the restrictions.

“Safety is an issue, but so is overreaching by our friends at the Corps,” said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, one of the bill’s sponsors.

“This is an amazing little way to fish here below the dams,” he said from the House floor. “This is a magnificent recreational resource that has been unfairly harmed by proposed Corps actions.”

Rep. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, also backed the measure. She said the Corps’ restrictions will hurt the local economy in communities along the river.

“Tennesseans simply do not need government telling us where or how to fish,” she said in a statement.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., sponsored the legislation in the Senate and he praised his House colleagues for approving the measure, which now heads to President Obama for his signature.

The Corps has stood by its decision, citing a string of drownings since 1970 and the need to fully comply with a 1996 agency policy requiring restrictions in hazardous waters near dams and locks.