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Congress Right To Revive Funding For Everglades, Other Projects

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2007

The $23 billion water bill that President Bush tried to kill is plump with pork, but it's not the fiscal disaster he claims. More importantly, it funds projects of critical importance to Florida and other parts of the nation.

Congress was correct to override - by large margins in both the House and Senate - one of the president's rare vetoes.

Yes, the bill's bottom line is troublesome. The House originally approved $15 billion and the Senate $14 billion - a sum that mushroomed to $23 billion in conference committee.

That's why U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, a Bartow Republican who supported the House bill, sided with the president. While he concedes the water bill is good for Florida, he worries about wasteful earmarks that congressional compromisers slipped in while meeting behind closed doors.

"I don't know if six months from now we are going to find out there is a 'canal to nowhere' in there," says Putnam, referring to the infamous "bridge to nowhere" that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens added to the highway bill when Republicans held congressional power. "You know the Army Corps of Engineers' reputation for spending money."

Putnam's fiscal caution is admirable and his complaints about the process justified. But the bill does not appear to be the spending free-for-all he fears. Most projects are aimed at protecting the public, improving the environment, shoring up infrastructure and sustaining commerce.

And because Congress had failed to pass a comprehensive water bill in seven years, the backlog of critical needs had grown.

Besides, while the legislation presents a to-do list of approved tasks to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, actual spending for each project must return to Congress for final approval. So while the process is routine, there will be opportunities for further scrutiny. Congress, it should be remembered, eventually eliminated funding for Stevens' bridge.

In the meantime, Florida needs the improvements the water bill will enable.

The bill provides $2 billion for long-delayed restoration work in the Everglades. Work on restoring a natural water flow is years behind schedule because Washington has failed to pay its half of the cost. The new allocation, while still not sufficient, will increase momentum for saving the Glades.

The measure also provides nearly $13 million for improvements at Tampa's port, including the construction of a passing lane so cruise ships and freighters can use the channel at the same time.

It also provides money to stabilize the shore of Egmont Key, the historic Tampa Bay island that is washing away. And it will help fund a Hillsborough County reclaimed water system that will boost water supplies and revive wetlands. It also will support a study of the Lake Okeechobee dike, which officials fear could collapse in a major storm and jeopardize the lives of 45,000 residents.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Hillsborough and her staff found other states had similarly worthy projects: Building sewage treatment plants, cleaning up polluted waters, shoring up dikes and providing hurricane relief. This gave her the confidence to support the bill's spending.

Of particular importance, the bill would provide $2 billion for restoring Louisiana's disappearing coastline, which rivals the loss of the Everglades as a national environmental disaster.

It would be foolish to think the bill doesn't include waste. What spending bill doesn't? But the bulk of the spending will go toward things that protect the public, sustain trade and save threatened resources.

Bush, who has done little to pare Washington spending, needs to find a more appropriate vessel for reclaiming his conservative credentials.

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