The U.S. Senate approved a federal investigation into a housing project at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia which has fallen years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.

The Magnolia Grove project was supposed to provide about 600 new and renovated metal building structures to serve as privately owned homes to house the additional 1,000 troops coming to the base in 2009.

So far, only two have been built.

Work has been halted and the contractor, American Eagle Communities, is already $25 million over budget. The entire project is on hold.

The additional troops were assigned to Moody when a special base-closing commission in 2005 decided to shut down or consolidate various key military facilities around the United States.

The steel buildings, all single-family homes, were to be privately built and maintained under a Pentagon policy that encourages the use of private contractors to build military housing.

American Eagle had a 50-year contract to build and maintain the Magnolia Grove housing at Moody, including $52 million to build 383 three- and four- bedroom homes. The company was to be in charge of managing and leasing the base houses. More than 300 acres were set aside.

The homes are partially built with a prefabricated steel building frame. The company once boasted back in the day that it would be able to turn over one house every day to Air Force inspection.

American Eagle expected to receive five metal building kits a week at the site, and the company unveiled the first Magnolia Grove home with much fanfare in February. But a month later, the project was shut down, citing funding concerns.

American Eagle is building housing at four other Air Forces bases and has run into similar problems at virtually all of them.

Little Rock (Ark.) Air Force Base, where 468 new homes were to be built and 732 others renovated, only 25 were completed.