Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tapped a pool of $138 million provided by Congress to pay for the rebuild of the Sperry Chalet in the backcountry of Glacier National Park/NPS file

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke took advantage of a little funding largesse from Congress to allocate $12 million to rebuild the Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park.

Though it wasn't mentioned in a release Interior staff sent out Wednesday to announce a $256 million infusion into the National Park System to address maintenance issues, Congress earlier this year in the Fiscal 2018 Omnibus legislation had in an unusual move provided Interior with an extra $138 million to "address only longstanding deferred maintenance and major construction related requirements of the Service.”

"When Congress enacted funding for the National Park Service as part of the Fiscal Year 2018 budget, the Department of the Interior and the NPS were asked to identify and list projects that the NPS will fund using the funding appropriated for construction," said National Park Service spokesman Jeremy Barnum in explaining the funding source.

Glacier officials have been awaiting construction bids for rebuilding the chalet, which burned last fall when the Sprague wildfire engulfed it.

Whether the secretary will tap any more of those unspecified funds for use elsewhere in the park system remains to be seen.