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Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com

Spending fight snags Wild Sky

By Jerry Cornfield
Herald Columnist

When Democrats surged into majority control of Congress this year, creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness area seemed to be, well, a slam dunk.

Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, the Democrat architects of the proposal, gushed confidently about the prospects in a Feb. 7 conversation with reporters.

"This time we're going to make it happen," Murray pronounced.

For one thing, Wild Sky's chief foe in the House of Representatives, Republican Richard Pombo of California, had been deposed in the electoral uprising of 2006. Pombo had kept the bill from coming to a vote; his exit seemed to clear a path for action.

The Senate aroused little worry. Senators had waved a Wild Sky bill through in 2002, 2003 and 2005. The fourth time would be the charm.

Murray spoke that day of stars aligning for a summer signing of the bill that would place 106,000 acres in eastern Snohomish County under a blanket of federal protection.

As she spoke, the timbre of Mission Accomplished could be clearly heard in her voice.

Seven months later, the bill creating Wild Sky is as unsigned as it's ever been.

It wasn't supposed to be this difficult.

The hang-up isn't with representatives. The House passed it in May.

This year's human blockade is in the Senate in the body of Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.

Coburn doesn't mind protecting Wild Sky — he voted for it in 2005. His issue is how to pay for it.

That's got it entangled in his grander crusade against congressional spending practices.

Coburn is the guy who last year tried to block funding for the Alaska "Bridge to Nowhere" linking Ketchikan to Gravina Island and its 50 people. Murray made a robust defense of the expenditure and the Senate rebuffed Coburn.

This year, Coburn is freely wielding one of a senator's powerful procedural weapons — putting a hold on any bill for any reason so it can't be voted on.

Coburn forewarned his colleagues he would do this to bills that propose to increase spending without offering reductions somewhere else.

Enter Wild Sky with a $19 million price tag from the Congressional Budget Office and without a suggested $19 million cut elsewhere.

He boxed it up with a couple dozen other bills authored by Democrats and Republicans, making Coburn a walking target of bipartisan frustration.

Senate leaders of both parties are now chatting with him to find a way to dislodge his hold on all those bills.

Wild Sky backers insist there's time. Those previous Senate votes came as late as November, they noted.

But with bigger issues such as funding government and fighting the war in Iraq dominating the Senate agenda, it may take until year's end for passage.

So supporters aren't reaching for the panic button. Only the pain reliever.

They hadn't planned on a headache like this until after the victory party.



Reporter Jerry Cornfield's column on politics runs every Sunday. He can be heard at 8 a.m. Monday on "The Morning Show" on KSER (90.7 FM). He can be reached at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.