Congress Intends to Override Bush Water Resources Veto

President George W. Bush (Photo by Chris Greenberg courtesy The White House)

Saying, "This bill lacks fiscal discipline," the president Friday vetoed the Water Resources Development Act, WRDA, which authorizes projects that impact waterborne commerce on the nation's rivers and coasts. WRDA also authorizes critical habitat restoration projects and environmental projects.

This is the first water resources bill passed by Congress since President Bill Clinton signed a water bill into law in 2000.

On September 24, the Senate voted in favor of the WRDA bill by a margin of 81-12. The House approved the bill in August by a vote of 381-40.

In his veto message, President Bush said, "The House of Representatives took a $15 billion bill into negotiations with a $14 billion bill from the Senate and instead of splitting the difference, emerged with a Washington compromise that costs over $23 billion. This is not fiscally responsible, particularly when local communities have been waiting for funding for projects already in the pipeline."

With his veto, the president has drawn a line in the sand against formerly loyal members of his own party.

Senator James Inhofe (Photo courtesy EPW)

Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who serves as ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has reaffirmed that he intends to "lead the effort in the Senate to override President Bush's veto."

"As a fiscal conservative," said Inhofe, "I certainly appreciate and share the President's concerns over "excessive spending" by the Federal government. The fact is, though, that the WRDA bill is not a spending bill; it is an authorizing bill. It simply sets out which projects and programs are allowed to get in line for future funding and sets the maximum amount of money that can be funded."

In the House, Republican Congressman John Mica of Florida, ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is equally set on a veto override.

Congressman John Mica (Photo courtesy Office of the Congressman)

"While I have supported President Bush on many occasions, I must respectfully disagree with his veto of this important and long-overdue water resources development bill. It is too important to Florida and the nation," said Mica.

"I am disappointed the President has decided to veto legislation that includes many critical infrastructure and restoration projects from across the nation, and at last actual work is authorized to begin on projects to restore the Everglades, a Florida and national ecological treasure," he said.

"The measure authorizes some 950 projects: the fact that Congress has not passed a WRDA bill in seven years accounts for the size of the legislation. These improvements are critical to the nation's infrastructure and environment, and more delay will only ignore the problems and increase costs."

Congressman James Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas who chairs the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, said, "It is simply irresponsible for President Bush to veto the only WRDA legislation that has made it to his desk since he took office."

"What makes this veto particularly galling is that President Bush is now asking the American people to spend another $196 billion on Iraq. Yet, he is unwilling to invest our own nation's future and in the recovery of the Gulf Coast region," said Oberstar and Johnson.

A Coast Guard helicopter flies over a flooded area of New Orleans looking for survivors of hurricane Katrina as the city is being evacuated. September 4, 2005. (Photo by Liz Roll courtesy FEMA)

The measure authorizes $1.9 billion to restore coastal wetlands and provide hurricane protection projects in coastal Louisiana, including New Orleans.

"By vetoing this bill, President Bush again demonstrated a stunning lack of compassion and support for the people along the Gulf Coast, because it delays funding that the region desperately needs for recovery from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005," the House Democratic leaders said. "The President is backing away from his pledge in New Orleans in September 2005 to ‘make the flood protection system stronger than it has ever been.'"

"The Bush administration claims that the cost of the legislation is too high, but this is not just one WRDA bill," they explained. "Instead, H.R. 1495 represents a backlog of seven years of project requests."

In the Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway, the measure authorizes $2 billion for navigation improvements and $1.6 billion to restore ecosystems and protect against invasive species.

Indian River Lagoon on Florida's east coast (Photo courtesy USFWS)

"It's a sad moment for the presidency and for Congress; it is an unnecessary veto, pointless," said Oberstar. "For seven years, a succession of Republican congresses has failed to enact the most important internal development bill in this country and it's all been on this president's watch."

Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Senator Barbara Boxer of California said, "President Bush's veto of the Water Resources Development Act breaks his commitment to the people of Louisiana to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina; breaks his commitment to America's communities to make them economically strong and protect them from flooding; breaks his commitment to make America's infrastructure a priority; and breaks his commitment to restore our environment, including the Everglades."

Boxer said, "We are already working across party lines in the Congress to override this ill-advised veto."

The veto override vote in the House will likely be postponed until next week when Oberstar returns to work after undergoing neck surgery yesterday to correct an orthopedic problem caused by an old cycling injury. Doctors at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, say the procedure went well.

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