BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana officials could sue in an attempt to force the federal government to pay for certain coastal recovery and levee projects.

The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority voted Tuesday to authorize two lawsuits against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

One would argue the Corps must pay fully to repair damage caused by the now-closed Mississippi-River Gulf Outlet, an amount estimated at $3 billion. A second lawsuit would seek to force the Corps to pay the full cost of maintaining a levee along the Algiers Canal on the Mississippi River’s west bank.

The Corps says state or local governments must pay 35 percent of the cost of the restoration work and levee maintenance. State officials, though, say federal law requires the Corps to pay for all of both projects.