House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), moving to placate 21 angry House Republicans, has promised to seek funds next year for several dozen highway projects that were left out of a recently passed spending bill on orders of a Republican subcommittee chairman.
Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), who chairs the Appropriations Committee panel that oversees spending on roads, rejected the projects sought by the mainly northeastern and midwestern lawmakers after they defied him by signing a letter calling for a doubling of Amtrak funding in 2005.
Istook's action infuriated the affected lawmakers, many of whom learned that their projects had been left out of the government-wide spending bill passed Nov. 20 only after it was too late to make changes in it. GOP leaders are also unhappy with Istook, sources said, because many of those affected were from congressional swing districts where the ability to bring home federal road projects can tip the balance to the incumbent in a close election.
Istook's action was first disclosed by the Hill newspaper.
"The Amtrak 21, " as the group is now called, vented its grievances at a meeting with Hastert last Tuesday. Sources said the speaker asked the members to submit one or two projects that had been rejected so that he could find a way to include them in legislation next year.
Hastert "showed sensitivity" to the delegation, said his spokesman, John Feehery.
But not all the aggrieved members consider the matter closed.
Istook faces a grilling next month when he goes before the influential House Republican Steering Committee to plead his case for another two-year term as a cardinal -- chairman of one of the 13 House Appropriations subcommittees.
"I'm not making serious threats against Ernie's position," said Rep. John M. McHugh (R-N.Y.), who represents New York on the Steering Committee and has one of 33 votes on it. "But we need to have a discussion on whether a subcommittee chairman has authority to make decisions" on the basis that Istook did. "Many of us say it was an inappropriate use of authority."
Istook's chief of staff, John C. Albaugh, said his boss "thinks it's a good thing that members have to go and be accountable before the Steering Committee, and he's looking forward to doing that."
But Albaugh said "more members have congratulated him for what he's done than criticized him." Istook, a fiscal conservative, has called Amtrak "a costly gamble."
The controversy has highlighted tensions between centrist Republicans from the Midwest and Northeast, and red state conservatives such as Istook, who control many key leadership posts and committee chairmanships.
Istook's insistence on limiting Amtrak's funding until fundamental reforms are made in the national passenger rail system is seen by some northern Republicans as suspect, given the close ties of Sunbelt conservatives to highway, oil and gas interests.
They point out that southern Republicans paid no price this year for holding out for more money for NASA than proposed by the House Appropriations Committee. The effort to overturn the committee proposal was led by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), representing the Houston-area space industry.
