PORTLAND, Ore. - An Oklahoma senator has again blocked new Mount Hood wilderness legislation despite wide support in the rest of the Senate.

Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican, pledged to filibuster a massive lands bill that included about 125,000 acres of new wilderness on Mount Hood and along the Columbia River Gorge, in Idaho's Owyhee canyons and elsewhere in California, Colorado and New Mexico.

Coburn's filibuster could have forced the Senate to use up to three days considering the bill. Senate leaders decided they had more pressing legislation to deal with.

However, a top aide to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said that although the bill may have to wait until next year, it will pass. He said a new congress and a new president will pass the wilderness bill.

Coburn has been the nemesis of new Mount Hood wilderness over the past year, repeatedly defying attempts by Wyden and Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith to pass it. He contends that the roughly $10 million cost for mapping and surveying is wasteful federal spending.