WASHINGTON -- U.S. 278 will get $2 million in federal money next year as part of the $388 billion spending bill Congress passed this weekend.

The bill, almost 14 pounds and 1,700 pages long, pays for nine government departments and has one of the leanest budgets for domestic programs in recent years. President Bush is expected to sign the bill soon.

"Definitely in the last few years there's been a restricting in the amount of money for special projects," said Wesley Denton, a spokesman for Rep. Joe Wilson, whose district includes Beaufort County. "It's just getting tighter every year. Any funds that we get, we're very pleased about."

Denton said U.S. 278, the only road onto Hilton Head Island, was Wilson's top funding request.

"Since first being elected to Congress in 2001, I have had no higher appropriations priority than Highway 278, and I am pleased that we have secured $5 million in federal funding to date," Wilson said in a statement.

Beaufort County Council Chairman Weston Newton, who has gone to Washington to discuss the highway with the South Carolina delegation, said he stressed that the highway is important to the state's "health, safety and welfare in terms of hurricane evacuations and the tourism dollars generated out of the area."

"I understand that many projects did not make it in the final legislation," he added, "so we're pleased that U.S. 278 was included and remained in the appropriations bill."

Newton said the money would be used to widen the highway. To date, $13 million has been set aside for the highway, although Newton said $36 million is needed to complete the project.

The bill also includes $200,000 for Beaufort Memorial Hospital's year-old Diagnostic Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, which tests for heart disease.

Hunting Island also received $150,000 for beach renourishment, while Ridgeland in Jasper County got $200,000 for its Wagon Branch water project.

The spending bill has taken heat from watchdog groups for being full of unnecessary, special-interest "pork" projects.

"While they held domestic spending to 1 percent, they did not restrain their appetite for pork," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. "I think Congress went whole hog on Thanksgiving."