Transportation bill has $1.5 billion for Idaho

BOISE – Idaho would get about $1.5 billion for highway projects under a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

The House passed the $284 billion measure that funds highway and transit projects by a 417-9 vote. Congress has been trying to produce a highway bill since the last six-year plan, funded at $218 billion, expired in September 2003.

Besides the $1.5 billion, Idaho also stands to get another $32 million in earmarked funds for special highway projects around the state, said Nikki Watts, a spokeswoman for Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, though she was unable to say exactly how that money would be used.

The Bush administration applauded the House bill but warned that the president would veto the legislation if the Senate pushes the final pricetag above $284 billion.

Mike Tracy, a spokesman for Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said though the bill had not yet been brought up in the Senate, Craig and Simpson work closely together to present a unified front on transportation requests.

Exactly how Idaho’s share will be used will be guided by officials with the state Department of Transportation, he said.

“The really good news for Idaho is we’ve got an appropriator in both the House and the Senate side,” Tracy said. “We really take the lead of the state of Idaho and the Idaho Transportation Department on what their priorities are.”

Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, was one of the few to vote against the bill. He was unhappy that the legislation did not include some environmental reforms, said spokesman Mark Warbis.

“You have responsible environmental requirements attached to many of these transportation projects. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is when the process gets so overloaded with legal challenges that more time and money is spent on that than improving the transportation system and creating jobs,” Warbis said. “There are literally hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide that could be created almost immediately if we could get through the morass of environmental restrictions that have held up the process.”