Congress allocates $400 mil. in funds for state

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Nov. 30, 2001 | 10:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Congress in its last dash to finish work for the year is finalizing federal budget bills that will funnel more than $400 million to Nevada.

Lawmakers every autumn scramble to pass 13 appropriations bills that keep the government running, and every year Nevada lawmakers try to increase federal money flowing to the state.

The bills set annual budgets for U.S. departments and agencies such as Defense, Energy, Interior and Health and Human Services. Money flows from there to states for a wide variety of projects.

In Nevada those projects range from McCarran International Airport and interstate improvements to new Nellis Air Force Base technology.

The House and Senate have approved 12 of the 13 bills -- lawmakers still are debating the Defense Department budget, and panels of House and Senate negotiators are haggling over final details on several of the other measures.

But pots of federal money for Nevada already have been approved or are slated for approval. For instance, the Department of Transportation bill as part of a funding formula has allocated about $197 million for Nevada interstates and highways.

The state's budget for Bureau of Land Management operations is wrapped in the Interior Department spending bill. That budget has not been finalized, but this year it was about $56 million. And the budget for Nellis Air Force Base northeast of Las Vegas is part of the Defense Department bill, which also is not final.

Nellis, the nation's largest Air Force training base, employs nearly 10,000 military and civilian employees and budgets $245 million for payroll alone. Congress also approved $12.6 million for a high-tech war games control center to operate Red Flag, the Air Force's top fighter pilot training exercise.

The bills also include earmarks for specific programs secured by Nevada lawmakers that some critics categorize as "pork" programs -- expenditures that were not approved in public hearings or don't have a clear national interest.

For example, this year the Department of Energy budget bill includes $6.2 million to upgrade buses, electrical and communications systems at the Nevada Test Site.

The Veterans Affairs/Housing and Urban Development bill includes $150,000 for Boulder City parks.

Other Nevada projects slated for federal funding include:

* $750,000 to upgrade a beauty school salon and child care center in Las Vegas.

* $1 million for the state of Nevada's tumor registry, to improve public health records.

* $500,000 for the Nevada Arid Rangelands Initiative, for continued work on cheatgrass control, fire rehabilitation and field tests of low-water use crops.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the No. 2 Senate Democrat, is a member of the Appropriations Committee, arguably the most powerful panel in Congress because it determines which programs get money.

Reid is responsible for securing much of the Nevada-bound funds, and he does not shy from using his position to obtain money for the state.

Reid said that Nevada will get more federal money than last year.

"I'm fortunate to be on the appropriations committee where I'm able to move some things around," Reid said.

Nevada's other three lawmakers in Congress also claim credit for securing federal money for various projects.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., made a special plea to key Senate Appropriations committee members for $1 million in the VA/HUD bill for a community center in Sparks, aides said. Ensign and Reid teamed to push for $11 million for a new air traffic control tower at Reno/Tahoe International Airport.

The two joined Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., to secure $10 million for a water treatment system in Fallon, the town 60 miles east of Reno where arsenic levels are 100 parts per billion. A new federal law dropped the mandated level from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.

Gibbons made the treatment system a top priority, personally lobbying key House appropriators, Gibbons aide Robert Uithoven said.

Gibbons had a face-to-face chat with Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., chairman of the subcommittee that approved the money for Fallon, in the moments before the subcommittee approved it, Uithoven said.

"He was making sure that funding would be maintained," Uithoven said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., helped land $2 million for the Nevada National Guard to battle drug trafficking and drug-related crimes.

The Guard's Counter-Drug Reconnaissance and Interdiction Detachment works with local police, to run programs throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

Berkley's seat on the House Transportation Committee also helped her nail down $5 million for a McCarran Airport air traffic control tower and several interstate improvements in Henderson.

Other trophies for the Nevada lawmakers:

* $8 million next year for the planned Hoover Dam bypass bridge to be constructed about a mile down river of the dam by as early as 2006.

Planners hope to speed up the original 2007 completion timeline because trucks have not been allowed on the dam since Sept. 11, state Transportation director Tom Stephens said.

That means higher costs for rerouted truckers who pass price hikes onto consumers.

The Hoover bypass bridge will cost roughly $200 million; up to $230 million if the project is fast-tracked. Arizona and Nevada will contribute $20 million each, and Congress must approve the rest. Congress has approved $78 million so far, so the project is on track, planners said.

In a separate project, Congress this year allocated about $10 million to match $10 million in state money to widen from two to four lanes an 18-mile stretch of U.S. 95 extending north from Reid's hometown of Searchlight.

The project is part of a larger plan to widen I-595 from Henderson to the state line.

"We've been working with our congressional delegation, and this is one of our top projects in Southern Nevada," said Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Magruder.

* $2 million for continued planning of a 300-mph magnetic levitation train route between Las Vegas and Anaheim.

The "maglev" proposal, advanced by a coalition of interests including the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission, is still lobbying for more money from Congress, despite the Department of Transportation favoring other projects.

The route would cost an estimated $6.8 billion. The $2 million keeps the project alive at least another year, said Neil Cummings, a leading project advocate.

The money likely will be used for more environmental assessments and California ridership studies, he said. "We'll make the best use of our funding as we get it," Cummings said. "We still believe that our route is the best and cheapest route to build."

* $27 million for the 34-year-old Foley Federal Building in Las Vegas, including money for security upgrades and courtroom renovations, including fire alarm, sprinkler, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning system improvements. Water chillers, windows, the building's roof and electrical equipment will be replaced, according to plans. Also, three elevators will be renovated and asbestos abatements made. "It's being totally modernized," said Viki Reath, a spokeswoman for the federal General Services Administration, which owns the building.

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