Montana Sen.-elect Jon Tester says he's fully aware of the uncertain status of congressional funding for the Kalispell bypass - and he's fully prepared to put up a fight for it.

The man Tester defeated in the November election, Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, had included about $8.2 million for the bypass from his perch as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation.

But that money "is in jeopardy" now that Burns is a lame-duck senator, one of his senior staffers said recently.

"There will be other senators who want to strip his projects out of the bill, because he won't be around next year," Burns spokesman J.P. Donovan said recently. "At this point, I think any level of funding is in question."

In an interview Monday, Tester said that won't be the case if he and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., can help it.

"I've visited with several folks in Kalispell about the bypass and I've visited with Senator Baucus on it, since he is on the Transportation Committee," Tester said. "I plan on working with him and pushing that issue to make sure we take care of that transportation need."

Tester said the bypass is one of many local issues that are priorities from one Montana community to the next. But it is clearly one of the big-ticket items for the Montana delegation.

To date, nearly $40 million has been set aside to build the 8-mile bypass around the west side of Kalispell, from U.S. 93 South near Gardner's Auction north to West Reserve Drive. But that figure does not include the $8.2 million, which is intended to build a road off West Reserve Drive from the intersection of Stillwater Road near the new Glacier High School directly to U.S. 93.

If the money does not come through Congress, the connector to the high school would be built using previously appropriated funds, reducing the amount available for the south section of the bypass.

In the weeks leading up to Tester's start as a freshman senator, however, the bypass is just one of many policy and organizational issues Tester and his staff are working to address.

"It's a lot of work, that's for sure," he said of organizing a staff of 35 to 40 people, about half of whom will be working in Montana and the other half in Washington, D.C.

"We want to try to have as many Montanans as possible," he said, noting that "moving to Washington, D.C., is not exactly a step up in terms of quality of life."

But Tester said his staff will have to be ready to deal with Montana issues as well as national policy, and the two often will overlap.

"There's some issues out there that are pretty doggone big and will require an exclusive person to handle them," he said, mentioning health care and energy policy as examples of big, complex issues in which he is interested.

Tester said he does not have to reinvent the wheel in terms of organization.

"Both Baucus and Burns have offices around the state," he said. "That template has been set, so we are going to use that template."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at [email protected]