Baucus blocks Bush pick for highway agency

Montana senator wants the $50 million authorized by Congress for Sun Road repairs

Flexing political muscle, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is blocking President Bush's pick to head the Federal Highway Administration in retaliation for the agency's handling of a $50 million appropriation for Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Federal Highway Administration officials have insisted that a long-term transportation bill approved by Congress last year authorized but failed to appropriate the $50 million.

But Baucus argues that the money has been lost to bureaucratic misinterpretation of language in the transportation bill, and he's following through on his pledge to "lean on" the agency to change its position by opposing the recent nomination of Richard Capka to lead the administration.

"I worked way too hard to secure these dollars for the road to let them slip away because of bureaucratic red tape," said Baucus, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the panel that will consider Capka's nomination. "Congress approved $50 million for the Sun Road, and that's what we're going to get."

Under Senate rules, any senator can place "holds" on nominees, who then must get 60 votes to be confirmed by the Senate. Baucus said he uses the parliamentary move "in only the most serious instances."

Transportation Weekly, a Washington, D.C.,-based publication that analyzes the nuts and bolts of the transportation bill, attributes the lost funding to "drafting errors."

But Baucus has maintained that his staff worked closely with Federal Highway Administration officials in drafting the language in the bill.

"It's unfortunate that (federal highway officials) changed their tune at the last minute," he said. "But I'm 100 percent committed to getting this mess cleaned up so we can get the Sun Road fixed as soon as possible."

Earlier this month, Baucus introduced legislation intended to amend the language in the transportation bill.

The Sun Road project is focused largely on the historic highway's alpine section, which hasn't had an overhaul since the road was built during the 1930s. Developed through an extensive planning process during the past 10 years, the Sun Road project was expected to take from six to eight years to complete.

Park officials have said the project's duration will be protracted without the $50 million.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.