U.S. Senate approves Wild Sky; bill goes to House

Published 11:15 pm Thursday, April 10, 2008

The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a federal lands bill that would create a 106,000-acre wilderness north of Index in eastern Snohomish County.

Backers of the Wild Sky Wilderness are celebrating the bill’s passage by a 91-4 vote in the Senate, but they aren’t quite ready to pop champagne corks because it has to go back to the House of Representatives.

Wild Sky, which has been in front of Congress since 2002, was lumped in with about 60 other federal lands acts, so it is technically a different bill than was approved a year ago by the House, said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who was the prime House sponsor.

Larsen, an Everett Democrat, said the Wild Sky bill could come back to the House as early as the next two weeks. After passage it would go to the president’s desk for signature.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who has championed the Wild Sky project in the Senate, said she’s not ready to plan a celebration yet.

“I’m not going to jinx this bill by planning anything,” Murray said.

Thursday’s vote was the fourth time since 2002 that the Senate has approved Wild Sky. Until last year, the wilderness bill has languished in the House.

This time around, the House approved Wild Sky after the Democrats took over in 2007.