Red squirrels, sacred Indian sites and court injunctions.

What hasn't held up the University of Arizona's plans to build a third telescope atop Mount Graham?

Now add to the list the federal budget battle.

"We're like the rest of country, just waiting and waiting and waiting, wanting to know what's going to happen," said Jim Slagle, assistant director of the $60 million Large Binocular Telescope Project.

In mid-December, the House passed a $12 billion Interior Department spending bill, which included an amendment allowing telescope construction to continue on Mount Graham in the Coronado National Forest. Days later, President Clinton vetoed the appropriations bill. Republican House members didn't have enough votes to override the veto.

Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., attached the amendment to the bill € a move environmental and American Indian groups sharply criticized as an "end-run" around the law.

"It would have allowed the university to circumvent all cultural and environmental laws," said Anne Carl, a member of the Student Environmental Action Committee at the UA. "We'd just like the university to follow the law. That's it."

The amendment simply would clarify what Congress intended when it authorized building three telescopes atop Mount Graham in 1988, said Doug Nick, Kolbe's press secretary.

The congressman plans to attach the Mount Graham amendment to a future appropriations bill, provided it has a "reasonable" chance of passing, Nick said.

"Everything right now has taken a back seat by the entire fight over the budget," Nick said. "We don't know where we're going next, but we're still actively pursuing this."

In recent weeks, Kolbe and telescope proponents have been quick to point out that Clinton made no mention of the Mount Graham project after vetoing the spending bill. Instead, Clinton said he objected to other amendments that concerned changes to the Endangered Species Act, logging in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, and protecting the Mohave Desert and Columbia River Basin.

"It was good news that the president didn't single us out," Slagle said. "Several things bothered the president, but Mount Graham wasn't one of them."

Environmentalists like Carl have countered that just because Clinton did not mention the telescope project does not mean he's indifferent or supports it. Clinton may not have been aware of the amendment, she said.

"Kolbe's amendment had nothing to do with the appropriations bill," Carl said. "It was just something tacked on at the last minute."

Speaking in general terms, Clinton also criticized the bill for its "objectionable legislative riders" that he said reduce environmental protection.

A 1994 lawsuit by a coalition of environmental groups has delayed telescope construction on the 10,477-foot peak near Safford. The courts have ruled that the UA must conduct additional environmental studies before it can continue construction in a mountain-top area that is home to the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel.

Though the 8.6-acre Mount Graham observatory was approved through an amendment to a package of bills in 1988, the current project site differs from the location specified in the act.