WASHINGTON - More than 120 projects around Montana will receive a total of $111.6 million in federal funding through the comprehensive spending bill Congress passed for 2008.

The money will go to cities, counties, schools, police departments, hospitals, private companies and civic groups around the state, according to a list released by Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. The largest amounts went to water projects, followed by military needs, road construction and university research.

Instead of passing the usual dozen annual spending bills, Congress rolled all but one of the separate measures into a single omnibus bill for fiscal year 2008, which began Oct. 1. During budget battles between both parties in Congress and the White House, negotiators at one point considered stripping out all such special projects.

President Bush is expected to sign the $555 billion measure into law.

The two Democratic senators and GOP Rep. Denny Rehberg, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, received specific requests from groups around the state and worked to push them through the budgeting process.

The largest amounts went to efforts to bring clean drinking water to residents in the rural northern and eastern parts of Montana. About $13.4 million will go to the Rocky Boy-North Central Montana Regional Water System. More than $9.8 million will go to the Fort Peck-Dry Prairie Rural Water System.

A Yellowstone National Park wastewater project also received more than $3.7 million.

Military projects also received some of the larger dollar amounts. About $7.6 million will go toward land purchase and construction of Army Reserve Center buildings in Butte and $7 million to a community activity center at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Several schools around the state received money for research projects.

Montana State University will receive $5.9 million for Center for Zero Emissions research technology. It will also receive almost $1.9 million for an animal bioscience facility, and hundreds of thousands of dollars each for a ruminant nutrition consortium, wool research, the Montana beef network, the Montana sheep institute and a barley project.

In road construction, nearly $4.6 million will go to the Shiloh Road project in Billings. The Highway 93 Kalispell bypass project received almost $4 million. Montana Secondary Route 323 from Alzada to Ekalaka will get nearly $1.6 million.

More than $4.4 million has been approved for land acquisition at Sun Ranch, one of the pre-eminent wildlife ranches in the state, for conservation purposes. The Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee, which works to manage the elk, bison and livestock disease, will receive $692,000.

About $886,000 will go toward a baseline environmental study in the Flathead River Valley after Canada's Cline Mining Co. proposed developing a controversial coal mine north of Glacier National Park.

For the first time ever, federal money will go to the Montana Meth Project, which will get $916,500.

Private companies also received money. The Washington Corp., headquartered in Missoula, received more than $2 million for research on "spiroid winglets," which improve fuel efficiency on airplanes. The research may be carried out in Seattle.

Billings will receive $328,000 for a baseball park under construction to replace Cobb Field. That money survived an attempt by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in September to strip it and a few other earmarks from a transportation spending bill.

Baucus and Tester had requested federal money for 276 projects across Montana worth about $978.8 million for fiscal year 2008. Rehberg said he had received requests for 250 projects worth about $816.9 million, but due to limitations on the number he could pass along to appropriations committees, said he submitted only roughly 100 of them.

"Jon and I weren't about to let anyone meddle with projects that bring good-paying jobs and new opportunities to Montana," Baucus said in a statement. "We fought hard for these dollars because Montana deserves funding for things like better highways, safer police stations and clean water."

Tester said the money will go a long way for Montanans, especially in rural areas.

"We secured this money despite an administration that's out of touch with rural America," Tester said in a statement. "I will always fight for good projects that make Montana a great place to do business and the best place in the world to raise a family."

Rehberg said Montana came out very well. He added that his seat on the House Appropriations panel gives him a seat at the table on almost every issue in government, from special education funding to foreign operations. His job, he said, is to minimize the "bad stuff" and try to get the spending focused on his priorities, especially related to Montana.

"I suppose any time you deal with a budget that is virtually half a trillion dollars and combines 11 out of 12 different budgets, there's going to be things in it that you really like and things you really don't," he said in an interview.

Even though Rehberg favors many of the provisions of the omnibus bill, he actually voted against it when it passed the House, because it did not contain Iraq war funding.

He said he focuses on priorities for individual counties and especially the water projects.

"It's a continuous struggle to keep it in front of my colleagues who have their own priorities for their projects," he said. "Without drinking water, you don't have a good living environment."

Like the senators, Rehberg received requests from around the state and had to winnow them down before submitting a smaller number to the committee.

"I can't name any project that I put in for an earmark that did not get funded one way or another," Rehberg said.

He praised Baucus and Tester for their "fine work" on the other side of the Capitol. The list of Montana projects released by the senators included some projects that all three lawmakers requested, some from just the senators and several only requested by Rehberg.

Carroll College

The omnibus spending bill includes $191,593 for Carroll College's civil engineering program.

Carroll President Tom Trebon said Wednesday that should President Bush sign the bill, the money would go toward a $1 million project to expand the college's civil engineering laboratory facilities and to purchase equipment.

"It's one piece of a larger project that will be very helpful for the college and for the students," Trebon said.

The project is part of the college's Centennial Campaign effort, he said.

The money for Carroll in the bill that the House passed Wednesday would principally go toward equipment, he said.

Trebon said Sen. Max Baucus carried the request for Carroll, and Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg also supported it.

"I am deeply grateful for (Baucus') support on this," he said.

Carroll's first graduating class in civil engineering finished the program in 2000.

Ashley Oliverio, a spokesperson for the college, said last year's graduating civil engineering class was the largest so far.

Trebon said it's one of few bachelor-degree civil engineering programs in the country.

-- IR staff

ExplorationWorks

The $426,790 that would go to ExplorationWorks in the omnibus bill passed Wednesday would come close to finishing the first phase of its capital campaign, the museum's executive director said Wednesday.

Suzanne Wilcox said the remaining work includes designing and fitting out the basement for public use including classroom space, a computer lab and a workshop; roofing over decks and awnings; carpeting; completing a classroom on the second floor; and possibly developing permanent exhibits collections.

"We at ExplorationWorks are very appreciative to Sens. Baucus and Tester for their recognition of the importance of science education and really engaging kids in learning," Wilcox said in a written statement. "Sen. Baucus has worked hard for ExplorationWorks -- many many thanks to Max!"

-- IR staff

'Last Best Place'

Congress finalized a measure Wednesday to prevent the unofficial Montana slogan "The Last Best Place" from being trademarked for a year. The provision, written by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., will stop the federal government from spending any money in fiscal year 2008 to process trademark applications using the phrase. Congress on Wednesday finished a comprehensive spending bill containing the measure, and President Bush is expected to sign the bill.

"I'm pleased and relieved we finally got it done," Baucus said in a statement. "We're confident this new language is bulletproof as far as the courts are concerned. And it'll achieve the result Montanans want. That is to keep the phrase in public hands for all Montanans, not just one Nevada businessman."

-- NOELLE STRAUB