Senate overrides Bush's water bill veto

[AliceInWonderland]

Senate overrides Bush's water bill veto
Story Highlights
NEW:
-Senate negates veto of bill that helps Gulf Coast, Everglades, Great Lakes
-The measure passed Congress by overwhelming margins
-Bill funds projects including the reconstruction of levees around New Orleans
-President Bush has called the measure too costly

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate on Thursday handed President Bush his first veto override -- authorizing $23 billion in new water projects.

The Senate voted to pass the bill 79-14, despite the president's objections.

Supporters said the projects authorized under the Water Resources Development Act are necessary to rebuild the Gulf Coast after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, restore the Everglades and Great Lakes fisheries and build flood-control projects nationwide.

Bush spiked the measure Friday despite its overwhelming bipartisan support, calling it too costly and complaining that the 900 projects it authorized would overtax the Army Corps of Engineers.

But the House of Representatives passed it again Tuesday on a 361-54 vote -- well beyond the two-thirds margin needed for an override -- and the White House said it was resigned to seeing the bill become law. See a chart of recent and historical vetoes »

No senator spoke in favor of sustaining Bush's veto during Wednesday afternoon's debate. The bill has had overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle, said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana.

"I don't know why the president chose this bill to try to reassume the mantle of fiscal responsibility, but he picked the wrong bill," she said.

The measure will fund projects including the reconstruction of levees around New Orleans, Louisiana, and the closure of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet -- a man-made channel blamed for funneling Katrina's storm surge into the city's Lower 9th Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish.

Landrieu said the water projects included in the bill will lay a foundation for reconstruction efforts after the storm, which killed more than 1,800 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.

"Frankly, without it, our long-term recovery is really in jeopardy," she said.

In his veto message, Bush complained that Congress added about $8 billion in projects to the bill in conference committee after each house had passed its own version.

"American taxpayers should not be asked to support a pork-barrel system of federal authorization and funding where a project's merit is an afterthought," he said.

But supporters say the projects are necessary because Congress has gone more than seven years since its last major water resources bill passed.

Since the 2006 elections, Bush has vetoed three spending bills -- the water bill, a $35 billion expansion of the state-run, federally funded Children's Health Insurance Program and a $120 billion war-spending bill that would have called for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in 2008.

All AboutU.S. Army Corps of Engineers • Hurricane Katrina


Find this article at:
Senate overrides Bush's water bill veto - CNN.com

Bush, you make me want to throw up.

[darksithbunny]

I hear they don't want to rebuild any of it because they aren't sure what they build will even work. Something has to be done. It can't just be left like it is.

[Grimmlok]

Just cuz it gets passed doesn't mean the Bush cabal will let it become reality. They'll keep obstructing it and it will never happen anyway.

[purewine]

What's with all these vetos lately? He spends 7 years in office with only one veto then, all of a sudden, veto veto veto. What gives? Must be a reason.

[Mariesoleil]

I hate Bush, can't wait for his term to be over!

[CherryDarling]

^^
Hate doesn't quite cover my disdain for the evil, vile POS Mr. Bush. Hurry UP November 2008.