Highway bill doesn't mention Sun Road

Montana Sen. Max Baucus announced last week he would co-sponsor a new federal highway funding bill. But the plan is a stark contrast to the bill Baucus supported in 2005 - it has no earmarks.

The 2005 bill included a $50 million earmark specifically for reconstruction of Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road.

The new bill doesn't mention the Sun Road. In fact, it mentions no highways by name, except for the Alaska Highway.

While the new bill doesn't have specific earmarks, there is a section that provides $1 billion for roads on federal lands, which would include the National Park Service. The Sun Road project is expected to be competitive for that funding source.

Since the early 1990s, the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration have spent $101.5 million on the Sun Road, and most of that became available in the past six years.

In addition to the 2005 earmark, the Obama administration in recent years obligated $32.3 million in federal stimulus money toward the road. But that funding will run out in the next few years.

The new highway bill reauthorizes the federal aid highway program at the Congressional Budget Office's baseline level - equal to current funding levels plus inflation - for two fiscal years, Baucus said.