Istook in hot water? From the WP:
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.
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