Congressional appropriators are considering deleting the recent SAFETEA-LU transportation measure's specified funding for two big Alaska bridge projects, but the lawmakers wouldn't remove the money altogether. Instead, a key Senator says, they would put the projects' combined $454-million allocation into Alaska's overall highway allotment and let state officials decide how to spend it.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) a senior appropriator and defender of the projects, says, "I'm disappointed that the issue was raised in the first place." Stevens says that under the envisioned change in a transportation appropriations measure, "It's up to Alaska to decide how to use that money."