Tester hopeful to see Park funding

Montana Sen. Jon Tester said last week that a comprehensive federal highway bill could come out of the Senate in the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve got a great chance to get it passed,” he said during his monthly conference call with small-town newspapers across the state.

The last highway bill was passed in 2005 and included a $50 million earmark by Sen. Max Baucus for Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road.

This year’s highway bill is stripped of earmarks, but it does include $1 billion for roads on federal lands, which would include Glacier Park.

The Park Service has spent about $110 million on Sun Road reconstruction since the 1990s. Glacier Park superintendent Chas Cartwright said the Park has about $50 million to $60 million worth of work left to do on the Sun Road.

There is also worry in the Park Service about mandatory budget cuts that are set to go into effect in the beginning of 2013. The across-the-board cuts could mean an 8 percent cut in funding to the Park Service.

Tester said he was optimistic Congress would find a solution in the lame duck session after the election.

“There will be pressure to do something positive,” he said. “If we let (the Park Service budget) go to pot, it will have serious impacts on the economy.”