"These community health centers offer crucial health services to a segment of our community in need," said Bennett. "Funds to continue these kinds of services is an important and valuable investment in the health of our citizens."

Congress also appropriated $5 million more for a new Utah Museum of Natural History to be located in Research Park. That money brings to $8 million the amount of federal funding, which is authorized to increase to $15 million through future appropriations.

And $1 million was appropriated to the Utah Shakespearean Festival to aid in the design and construction of a new Elizabethan theater in Cedar City.

Lawmakers also reinstated for four years the moratorium on Internet access taxation that had expired on Nov. 1, 2003. The four-year extension is retroactive to Nov. 1, 2003, and will expire on Nov. 1, 2007.

In September 2003, the House unanimously passed HR 49, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, which had called for a permanent moratorium on Internet access taxation. The final version worked out between the House and Senate during the lame duck session calls only for a four-year moratorium.

"The Internet has exceeded our collective expectations as a revolutionary spring of information, news and ideas," Cannon said. "It is essential that we keep that spring flowing. We must not thwart the Internet's availability by taxing access to it."

Cannon said he will continue working to make the moratorium permanent.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com