WASHINGTON -- A pair of Western Pennsylvania earmarks caught the eye of the Senate yesterday as it debated a spending bill -- but both of them escaped the ax.

The Senate passed the appropriations bill for the Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, after two amendments were defeated that challenged $200,000 for brownfields redevelopment in Mount Washington and $1.4 million for the John P. Murtha airport in Johnstown.

The Mount Washington project, on 1 Grandview Ave., is a $1.2 million cleanup of asbestos and other hazardous waste at the former Edge Restaurant.

Chicago developer Steven Beemsterboer plans a $90 million to $100 million hotel and condominium development there, which should be completed in about two years.

"It's hard to envision a more appropriate use of $200,000 than is present here," Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., said in a floor speech Wednesday. "It's a clear-cut matter of looking to the federal government to fulfill its responsibility on an area which has become blighted, a waste site which should have been cleaned up a long time ago under federal law."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., saw it differently. He introduced the amendment to strip the bill of funding for three brownfields projects because, he said, such programs were included in cuts that the Obama administration laid out earlier this year. The Appropriations Committee classified the earmarks differently in including them in the bill, promoting them as economic development initiatives instead of brownfields projects.

"It is simply not fiscally responsible for us to continue to load up appropriations bills with wasteful and unnecessary spending," Mr. McCain said on the floor.

The Senate voted 60 to 37 against the amendment.

Rep. John Murtha's airport has been billed as another example of wasteful spending in recent media reports.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., introduced the amendment to strip its funding, saying in a speech on the Senate floor that the airport has become the second-most recognizable piece of pork barrel spending after Alaska's Bridge to Nowhere.

"If there's any such thing as waste, it is this airport," Mr. DeMint said.

Over the years, Mr. Murtha, D-Johnstown, has steered $150 million in federal funds to the airport. It also received $800,000 in stimulus money this year to widen a runway.

But the airport has only three flights a day -- all to Dulles International Airport, outside Washington, D.C. -- and averages about 20 commercial passengers per day. On average, the federal government subsidizes $100 of every ticket.

The airport is one of 152 small airports that receive funding through the Department of Transportation Essential Air Service Program. Its $1.4 million a year backing ranks 51st among the funded airports, according to data from the DOT.

The lion's share of federal funding -- and Mr. Murtha's earmarks -- is for military spending at the airport for local National Guard and Reserve units. But some of those projects, including an $8.6 million radar system, have gone unused, and watchdog groups have criticized the spending.

Mr. Murtha and Johnstown-area leaders have long promoted the airport's growth as vital to the area's economic fortunes to defend the earmarks. Pennsylvania's senators both followed suit, proclaiming their support for the airport in floor speeches.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., cited Johnstown's high rate of military service and difficult economic past.

"The least we should do is not target this community and target this airport in the midst of a debate on this transportation appropriations bill," he said.

After the mostly party line vote, in which the amendment failed 53 to 43, Murtha spokesman Matt Mazonkey defended the airport as well.

"With all due respect, Senator DeMint's amendment ignores the facts and is insulting to the over 150 rural communities around the country whose airports receive the same type of federal funding," Mr. Mazonkey wrote in an e-mail. "We're pleased that the Senate, like the House, defeated this absurd amendment, and we appreciate the strong support from Senators Casey and Specter."

Mr. Murtha, as chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, unapologetically uses his powerful position to funnel money and jobs to his district, whose economy has benefitted greatly from defense spending since the collapse of the steel industry.

During a visit to Derry last month to promote a new sewer project receiving almost $7 million in federal funding, Mr. Murtha said, "I get criticized for earmarks, but I'll tell you something -- that's why I'm up there. I'm up there to make sure the people I represent get their fair share."