[jcx]

Stevens is the chair or a senior member of several committees, including commerce and transportation. If he doesn't get his pork, he'll make sure your bill dies in committee. This could have been the start of something great if he got pissed off and started a pissing contest in the Senate (and put a halt to a lot of superfluous spending). But since only 15 Senators had the balls to vote against him, this is unlikely. I would have loved to see his bluff called on his promise to resign if his bill was defeated. Chances of him resigning = less than zero. Someone with an ego big enough to waste hundreds of millions of $$ on a useless prestige project is not going anywhere, but the spectacle would have been fun to watch.