$250 million will flow to Utah

WASHINGTON — More than $250 million in Utah projects were included in a long overdue 2003 spending bill that Congress finally passed Thursday.

The bill combined 11 of the 13 annual appropriations bills that Congress must pass each year, usually before the fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Partisan fighting before last year's elections prevented passage of most of them, and the federal government has operated on a series of stop-gap spending bills since that time.

Thursday, the large final bill — more than 3,000 pages long and covering $397.4 billion in spending — passed the House 338-83 and the Senate 76-20. It now goes to President Bush for signature.

• $80.6 million to help extend the TRAX light-rail line to the University of Utah Medical Center. "The choke-hold of traffic at the U. will ease significantly with completion of this segment of TRAX," Bennett said.

• $5.6 million for a new visitors center at Arches National Park. "We host at least 750,000 visitors a year at Arches National Park and need adequate facilities to accommodate their needs," Bennett said. Also, another $837,000 is included for a project to relocate the highway entrance to the park.

• $4.1 million toward cleanup of the Atlas uranium mill tailings near Moab, which leach radioactive material into the Colorado River.

• $9.6 million to jump-start a project to build a new U.S. District Courthouse in Salt Lake City.

• $1 million to beef up efforts against methamphetamine labs. Some of the money would help Sevier, Wayne and Sanpete counties purchase remote meth detection equipment. "Regrettably, meth use in Utah is among the highest in the nation. These funds are essential if we are to combat its extraordinarily damaging effects," Bennett said.

• $24.78 million for a water rights settlement with the Ute tribe over Central Utah Project water.

• $19 million to settle a water rights dispute with the Shivwits tribe.

• About $10 million for Utah counties through the Payment In Lieu of Taxes program, to compensate them for the loss of taxes on federal lands.

• $1.8 million for a new visitors center at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.