The U.S. Senate approved a bill last night that will allow the UA to move forward with construction of its Mount Graham Large Binocular Telescope Project.

The Senate approved the Omnibus Appropriations bill yesterday, with a Mount Graham rider attached, by a vote of 88-11 after the House of Representatives passed it 399-25.

President Clinton was expected to sign the bill before midnight, but wire reports and calls to Washington, D.C., could not confirm if he had done so.

The decision enables the University of Arizona and its partners to proceed with construction of the project's third telescope, according to a press release faxed last night to the Wildcat.

U.S. District Court Judge Alfredo Marquez issued an injunction in July 1994 that halted construction of the third telescope after the UA began building outside the 26-acre area Congress set aside for construction of the telescopes.

The injunction ordered the federal government to conduct a new review of the impact on the Mount Graham red squirrel, an endangered subspecies, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that injunction April 24, 1995.

Matthew Smith, spokesman for the LBT Corp., said other steps must be taken now, such as dispensing with the injunction and closing out the court case against the UA.

"I can't give a timeline" on when construction would resume, Smith said.

In the press release, UA President Manuel Pacheco said, "The university and the 74 percent of Arizonans who support the LBT are grateful for the leadership that Congressmen (Jim) Kolbe (R-Ariz.) and (Ed) Pastor (D-Ariz.) and the other members of the delegation have shown in moving this important science project forward."

Representatives of the Student Environmental Action Coalition could not be reached by phone last night.

A voice message left by the group, however, said they will continue to fight the decision.