Washington, Idaho present united requests

WASHINGTON – Most people come to the nation’s capital with an agenda.

The 51 representatives of five chambers of commerce from Eastern Washington and North Idaho came this week with The Agenda.

The 2006 Inland Northwest Regional Agenda is an impressive list of projects for Spokane, Spokane Valley, the West Plains, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, including:

“$450 million over the next 30 years to clean up the Coeur d’Alene Basin and changes in the way states decide how much pollution in the water is too much.

“$40 million to “bridge the Valley” by combining railroad tracks and raising them above the roads that are closed when trains pass, plus money for the North Spokane Corridor and U.S. 95 in Idaho.

“$18.5 million for a new Mission Support Center at Fairchild Air Force Base.

“Federal money for job training in high technology and health care fields.

In meetings with senators and representatives of the two states, the group was told this is a tough year to come looking for money for new programs.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., came late and had to leave early for her session because she was helping to manage debate on the emergency spending bill for Iraq, Hurricane Katrina cleanup and other projects, which she said was up to $104 billion.

“$106 billion,” corrected a member of her Senate staff from the back of the room.

“This is one of the toughest budget years I’ve seen,” Murray said. The war on terrorism is costing $10 billion a month, and the deficit is growing, she added.

But Murray complimented the group, which has its “Regional Vitality” logo on everything, including slick pamphlets with glossy photos and the name tags hanging from their necks, for presenting a united front.

Such unity just makes sense for communities that are “inextricably linked,” said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

“One side of that (Spokane) valley doesn’t grow very well without the other side recognizing and supporting it,” Craig said.

This year’s allotment of $15 million for Coeur d’Alene Basin cleanup is in the budget, he added.

Along with the budget, Congress is wrestling over some very controversial issues, he told the group – energy, immigration and the war in Iraq. But those national issues play into the regional concerns.

Work force training, which the delegation lists as one of its four areas of concern, is tied in with immigration, Craig said. The number of jobs in the nation grew by about 5 million during the Bush presidency, and about a third went to foreign nationals.

“Immigration is all about work force,” he said. “There really is a need for a seasonal work force and a guest worker program.”

With Congress returning from a two-week break to gasoline prices that have jumped by 25 cents per gallon or more, there’s likely to be a push to do something about the rising price of oil, said Bruce Evans, staff director for the Senate Energy Committee.

The emergency spending bill that Murray mentioned could also become the platform for debate over new energy policies ranging from tougher anti-trust measures on the oil companies to a gasoline tax holiday to increased spending on research and development, Evans said. Not because it’s the perfect place to have the debate, but because “it’s the vehicle available.”

Which of the proposals will survive is hard to predict, he said.

But Evans, Craig and others were relatively confident a proposal to change the way Bonneville Power Administration sells some of its surplus power will not survive. Congress has a plan to block the White House proposal through next April, and after that the idea may quietly disappear.