BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers is recommending that the federal government negotiate a settlement with North Dakota for more than $38 million that the state spent policing protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

The request comes following a federal judge’s decision last month to deny the federal government’s motion to dismiss North Dakota’s lawsuit seeking to recover the damages the state claimed from the monthslong pipeline protests almost four years ago.

North Dakota Republican U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer calls the recommendation “very significant” and the right thing to do for the federal government.

The $3.8 billion pipeline has been moving oil from the Dakotas through Iowa to Illinois for more than three years.