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President Rejects Bill With Billions For Florida Water Projects

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By BILLY HOUSE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 3, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday refused to sign into law a $23 billion national water-projects bill that would authorize tens of millions of dollars for the Tampa Bay area and billions more for other projects in Florida.

But the bill, which includes authorization of more than $2 billion for Everglades cleanup, is far from dead.

Democrats who control both chambers of Congress say that with many Republicans also backing the bill, they have the two-thirds majority of votes needed to override a presidential veto and make the bill a law. And they plan to do so.

If Congress does override the president, it would mark the first such defeat for Bush, underscoring his political vulnerability as a president with just 14 months left in office.

Bush said the bill lacks fiscal discipline and is representative of, "a pork-barrel system of federal authorization and funding where a project's merit is an afterthought."

Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is among those who Friday urged Democratic leaders of the Senate and House to immediately take up an override vote.

And some Republicans, such as Florida's Sen. Mel Martinez, disagree with the president.

"I share the president's concerns on excessive spending," Martinez said in a statement. "But at the end of the day, as a Floridian, Everglades restoration is such an integral part of this bill we have to take the good with the bad."

Congress had not been able to reach a compromise on a water resources bill since 2000, and many lawmakers see this as an opportunity to get approval for a range of needed and otherwise favored projects in their states and districts.

Money Not Guaranteed

In reality, a project's inclusion in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act is not guaranteed money. But getting it into an authorization bill is a necessary first step in securing that money in a later spending bill.

For the Tampa area, the authorization bill includes $6.25 million for a project sought by Tampa's Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor to boost Hillsborough County's ability to provide reclaimed water to its customers, in part by using abandoned phosphate mines to capture and store rain.

The measure also contains an authorization for $12.9 million toward improving navigation along one of Tampa Bay's main shipping channels. Specifically, the bill authorizes construction of passing lanes in the Port of Tampa at Cut B, just west of the turnoff to Port Manatee.

About 50 other Army Corps of Engineers projects would be authorized for the Bay area and across Florida by the bill.

Along with the Everglades cleanup work, that includes a total of $139 million for ports and $70 million for rebuilding beaches. The bill also specifies that shoreline restoration for Egmont Key, at the mouth of Tampa Bay, is one of its priorities.

Bush said the bill's "excessive authorization" for more than 900 projects and programs nationwide will exacerbate a $38 billion backlog of previously authorized corps construction projects. The White House Office of Management and Budget also has said that the more than 100 wastewater and drinking water projects it contains are beyond the central mission of the corps - diverting millions of dollars from flood and storm projects.

"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," Bush said. "This is not fiscally responsible."

Bush had never vetoed budgetary bills under the Republican Congress, even those that included increases. But with Democrats in January taking control of both chambers, this marks his third veto of such a bill this year.

However, even those who praised Bush for his veto Friday say they are resigned that Congress is likely to override Bush for the first time and make the bill law.

They note that the Senate passed the bill with wide bipartisan support on Sept. 24 by a vote of 81-12, and the House passed it with bipartisan support on Aug. 1 by a vote of 381-40.

Congress Feels Its Power

"The deck is stacked against us," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based budgetary watchdog that praised Bush's veto as a step toward restoring "fiscal sanity" to federal funding for water project infrastructure.

Nelson wasted no time in writing Friday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California to urge they immediately take up an override vote.

"We cannot let this ill-conceived veto stand," Nelson wrote.

Said Castor: "The Bush administration does not understand the importance of these projects to our community, our state and our country. ... The investment we are asking for is so small compared to the billions of dollars the president is spending in his war without end in Iraq."

In a statement issued Friday by his office, Reid said: "When we override this irresponsible veto, the president will finally recognize that Congress is an equal branch of government and reconsider his many other reckless veto threats."

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@tampatrib.com.

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