The fates of three bills significant to Wyoming are tied in with more than 150 other measures slated for an unusual U.S. Senate vote Sunday.

The proposals have divided Wyoming's congressional delegation, and their prospects for passage were uncertain on Friday.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., spoke on the Senate floor Friday in defense of one of the measures, which would protect the Wyoming Range from further oil and gas leasing. He also supports parts of the legislation that would protect 387 miles of rivers and streams in the Snake River drainage under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and would obligate the federal government to help states compensate ranchers for livestock killed by wolves once they're no longer listed as an endangered species.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., also supports those pieces of legislation, but he was uncertain Friday whether he would vote for the overall Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, his spokeswoman said.

"Senator Enzi is still studying the bill, but I won't know until Sunday how he is going to vote," said Elly Pickett, Enzi's press secretary.

If the giant package of legislation manages to clear the Senate, new U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., made it clear Friday that she'll oppose it in the House.

"Families across the country are finding themselves struggling with their mortgages and facing uncertain financial conditions," she said in a press release. "I cannot, in good conscience, vote to make things worse by approving an omnibus package that increases Washington spending by more than $10 billion and restricts the use of millions of acres of federal lands."

The price tag of the package of bills has been a primary target by opponents - principally, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Before the Senate adjourned in December, he successfully blocked a vote on the measure, which includes a wide array of protections for forests, rivers, trails, national parks and other wilderness sites around the country.

In the Senate Friday, Coburn specifically criticized the Wyoming Range protections, saying they would harm the nation's efforts at energy independence by putting large volumes of oil and gas off-limits to development. Barrasso responded in his speech by pointing out that the most recent estimates of the volumes of oil and gas in the Wyoming Range are much smaller than earlier figures, that the bill wouldn't invalidate existing leases, and that Wyoming is already the largest exporter of energy in the country.

"The people of Wyoming are doing their part to keep America's energy flowing… Wyoming has never been a state that has said, 'Not in my backyard,'" he said. "… But we also recognize there must be a balance."

Divided delegation

Barrasso introduced the Wyoming Range Legacy Act in 2007, after he was appointed to replace the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., who had been crafting the legislation before his June 2007 death. The bill would prohibit any new oil and gas leasing, mining patents or geothermal leasing in a 100-mile-long stretch of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. It also would allow conservation groups to buy and retire existing energy leases from willing sellers.

Barrasso, Enzi and Gov. Dave Freudenthal, along with conservation and sportsmen's groups, say the Wyoming Range warrants protection from further energy development. Oil and gas industry groups oppose the legislation.

For her part, Lummis said she would support the measure with "some targeted improvements," though she didn't specify what those would be. Same with the Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act, which would give federal "wild and scenic" designation to parts of the Snake River and its tributaries in northwest Wyoming.

"Unfortunately, Democrat leadership in both the House and the Senate are not giving us the opportunity to make these revisions or even consider the bills separately on their own merits," Lummis said in her press release.

Speaking by telephone after his speech Friday, Barrasso said the members of Wyoming's delegation are "independent" and must decide for themselves how to vote.

"With any package of 150 bills, you can imagine there are things you like, and things you don't like," he said. "There are some things very important to Wyoming in this bill, and I'm going to be voting in support."

In addition to the Wyoming Range and Snake River protections, he pointed out the legislation includes federal funding to help compensate for livestock losses to wolves, once they're removed from the endangered list. He partnered with Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., to draft that provision.

Sunday vote

Barrasso said he was uncertain how Sunday's vote would turn out. "They're still counting votes," he said of Senate leaders on Friday afternoon.

The first vote will be procedural, on a motion to end debate on the omnibus measure and proceed to an up-or-down vote on the legislation itself. A vote to end debate generally needs the support of 60 senators to be approved, but in this case it needs just 59 "yes" votes, as there are only 98 seated senators at present.

Sunday votes in the Senate are unusual. In this case, it's a result of conflict between Coburn and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who earlier this week criticized Republican obstructionism and signaled he intends to use the Democrats' stronger majority to more aggressively pursue his party's agenda.

Procedural obstacles set by Coburn expire on Sunday.

"We're going to have a vote Sunday morning here in the Senate," Reid said Wednesday. "People who are United States senators should cancel their travel plans."

Enzi and Barrasso have done just that. They plan to be among the senators participating in Sunday's vote, though Enzi indicated he hasn't decided how he'll vote.

"It will just come down to what other things are included in this - if the good outweighs the bad," Pickett said.

'Waiting and waiting'

Supporters of the Wyoming Range and Snake River legislation Friday expressed some frustration about the procedural uncertainties associated with the broad legislative package.

"We've been waiting and waiting and waiting so long. Now it feels like we're right on the threshold, but we don't really know where we are on that threshold," said Walt Gasson, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. "It's maddening sometimes - there's so much support for this thing."

Trout Unlimited spokesman Tom Reed said each of the bills in the package has "been through its own separate legislative process" and was "vetted" by congressional committees before being included.

"From the standpoint of the cost-effectiveness of government, let's get this thing taken care of, off the table, and move on to the business of the 111th (Congress)," Reed said. "For efficiency's sake, it makes sense economically to get this taken care of."

Star-Tribune Editor Chad Baldwin can be reached at (307) 266-0545, or e-mail chad.baldwin@trib.com.