WASHINGTON -- Yellowstone National Park would be a top beneficiary of a $19.6 billion bill to fund the Interior Department in fiscal 2004 that a Senate panel approved on Wednesday.

Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns is the chairman of the Interior Appropriations Committee and thus kept an eye on the park, which serves as an economic engine for the Montana and Wyoming communities around it.

Senators from other parts of the country are not nearly as happy because the budget deficit and the focus on the military and homeland security is forcing Congress to limit the amount that it spends.

''Although this is a modest appropriations bill in the amount of funding it provides, it is a critically important one because of the direct impact it has on people and their livelihoods -- particularly in the West," Burns told the members of the subcommittee.

The bill includes nearly $6 million to restore the Old House at Old Faithful. The Old House is the original part of the Old Faithful Inn that was constructed in 1903 and includes a gable roof, dining room and kitchen wings to the south, and small guest-rooms.

The bill also includes $1.9 million for repairing other buildings and roads in the park, and snow coaches. Another $1.9 million is specifically set aside for rebuilding the West Yellowstone entrance to the park.

Burns also tucked in $1.2 million for a coalbed methane development water quality study, $2.1 million for a grizzly bear DNA study and $3 million for a project to improve the environment of the Greater Yellowstone area.

Although he was able to look out for Yellowstone, Burns said he was concerned that the measure does not have enough money for fighting wildfires.

The measure provides about $2.2 billion for fighting wildfires for next year, which is $221 million more than Congress has set aside for this year.