House Overrides Water Bill Veto

[Falkenhayn]

The AP via Guardian

House Votes to Override Veto


Tuesday November 6, 2007 11:16 PM

By JIM ABRAMS

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House approved what could become the first override of a President Bush veto Tuesday, with Republicans joining Democrats in challenging the president over a $23.2 billion water resources bill that addresses pressing infrastructure needs while offering hundreds of home district projects.

``I must respectfully disagree with President Bush's veto of this important and long overdue water resources development act,'' said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the top Republican on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, in explaining the rare rebellion of the GOP faithful toward the president.

The vote was 361-54, well over the two-thirds majority needed to negate a presidential veto. The Senate, which approved the bill 81-12 in September, could cast its override vote as early as Wednesday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Bush's argument that the bill is fiscally irresponsible rings hollow when the White House is asking for an additional $200 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ``Fiscally responsible people maintain their infrastructure,'' he said. ``Fiscally responsible people know that clean water and safe harbors aid our commerce and the health of our people.''

Asked whether the veto override was essentially a crack in the dam - the first in perhaps a string of veto overrides as Bush's power wanes - White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: ``We'll see about that.''

``One thing that the president would like to do is to make sure that he's on the right side of federal taxpayers,'' Perino said. ``And that's what he's doing with this veto.''

Bush did not veto a single bill during the first five years of his presidency, when Congress was mainly in GOP hands. He has since vetoed a stem cell research bill twice, an Iraq spending bill that set guidelines for troop withdrawal and a children's health insurance bill. He vetoed the Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, on Nov. 2, saying it was too expensive.

[Academia Nut]

About FUCKING time they got past a veto, considering we've had the better part of a decade of Bush fucking things up. A pity that there had to be pork on the line instead of children's health insurance. And you all know that there has got to be some pork buried in with all the good stuff with a bill this big and regional.

[JME2]

Aww, poor Shurb. Can't wait to see what kind of a tantrum he throws.

[MKSheppard]

Is this the one that will allocate billions to "fix" new orleans, essentially throwing our money down the drain?

[DarkSilver]

Actually Shep, I think this one is the one which gives a record amount of federal aid in attempting to fix Lousiana coastlines in general, one of which is a Project which is centered around my home parish. It does allocate some money to repairs to the New Orleans levy system, *if* I'm not mistaken (which I have been known to be....), but not billions and billions I think....

[Vejut]

If I'm recalling the article properly, it doesn't actually allowicate any funds at all--it simply tells the corps of engineers they're allowed to do the project. The article originally describing the bills implied that funding for them was a completely seperate deal.

[CmdrWilkens]

The Senate has come through: (from WashPo)

Congress Hands Bush First Veto Override

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 8, 2007; 2:31 PM


A year after Democrats won control of Capitol Hill, Congress delivered its clearest victory yet over President Bush today, resoundingly overturning Bush's veto of a $23 billion water resources measure -- the first veto override of his presidency.

The Senate voted to override the veto, 79-14, with 34 Republicans abandoning the president and just 12 standing by him. The Senate vote followed one in the House, which rejected the veto Tuesday, 361-54. Both votes were well over the two-thirds majorities needed to defy Bush.

"I hope that the Congress feels good about what we've done," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "I believe in the institution of the legislative branch of government. I think it should exist, and for seven years, this man has ignored us."

"We have said today as a Congress to this president, 'You can't just keep rolling over us like this. You can't make everything a fight, because we'll see it through'," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a primary architect of the law.

Today's override marks only the 107th time that Congress has overridden a presidential veto in the nation's history. Congress overrode two of Bill Clinton's 22 vetoes and just one of George H.W. Bush's 44 vetoes. Gerald R. Ford, who vetoed 66 bills, and Harry S. Truman, who vetoed 250, each had 12 overridden, the most of any president other than Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century.

As obscure as the Water Resources Development Act may be, Congress's action sets the stage for much larger spending and tax fights to come in the next few weeks. The House tonight is scheduled to send Bush a $151 billion measure to fund federal health, education and labor programs, a bill that Bush has promised to veto because it exceeds his request by nearly $10 billion.


The Senate is likely to give final approval to a $459.3 billion defense spending this evening as well, one that increases defense spending by $35.7 billion -- or 9.5 percent -- over last fiscal year. Bush is expected to sign that legislation.

Democrats made clear today they will relentlessly compare the president's willingness to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense and war, while he rejects much smaller increases for domestic spending. Republican leaders vowed to round up enough votes to sustain Bush's vetoes on the spending bills, even though they acknowledged that many Republicans are likely to break with the White House.

Indeed, both parties sounded a discordant note on fiscal rectitude today. House Democratic leaders, defending a tax measure that will come to a vote tomorrow with offsetting tax hikes, largely on Wall Street titans, claimed to represent the party of fiscal responsibility -- even as they were pushing through some of the biggest domestic spending increases in years.

"We are making the hard decisions that Republicans refused to make, and continue to refuse to make," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Republicans said they were the party of small government and austerity, even as they abandoned the White House in droves to push through a water bill that, if fully funded, would build over 900 projects valued at a total of $38 billion, according to the White House.

"Sadly, because the authors of this bill have rained a few earmarks to every member's district, Congress didn't have the courage to stop this reckless overspending," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), whose dissent on the measure was a lonely one.

The bill would authorize billions of dollars in coastal restoration, river navigation and dredging projects, levee and port construction and other Army Corps of Engineers public works efforts. Seven years in the making, the measure took on particular political resonance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as Gulf Coast lawmakers secured nearly $2 billion in restoration and levee construction projects for the region. The bill also would continue projects such as the restoration of the Everglades and the dredging of the upper Mississippi River, while expanding oversight of the Army Corps.

The measure authorizes $30 million to reduce nitrogen flowing from the Washington-area Blue Plains sewage treatment plant into the Chesapeake Bay. It also provides $40 million for other Chesapeake Bay pollution reduction projects.

Another $192 million is authorized for the expansion of the bay's Poplar Island project, which involves rebuilding the island with dredged material from the channels that serve the Port of Baltimore. It includes a $30 million increase for Chesapeake Bay oyster restoration and an additional $20 million for other bay environmental protection projects.

But the law merely authorizes such projects. Lawmakers who support the projects now must secure funding through the House and Senate appropriations committees, with no guarantees. Senate Republicans repeatedly justified their votes by saying the law actually does not spend a cent, but Boxer made it clear that the authorizations would speed the allocation of funds.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Oh the tantrum from Mr. 25% Three-Year-Old Child is gonna be EPIC. I wonder how many times he'll say the word 'Terra' this time!

[Knife]

Shame, I'd have rather had Congress overide the SCHIP veto than this one.

[Xisiqomelir]

$23B? How quickly does that disappear in Iraq?

[Chris OFarrell]

Very qucikly.

Its fucking absurd how much money the US is borrowing, then simply pouring down a drain, then coming back for more...

Of course Bush isn't going to be in office when the credit card statement arrives, so he doesn't give a fuck.

[Kanastrous]

Of course Bush isn't going to be in office when the credit card statement arrives, so he doesn't give a fuck.

Heck, he won't even be on-planet.

Banking on being enraptured with all his pals, you know.

[Glocksman]

This whole episode is full of ironies.

First off, we have George Fucking Bush complaining about 'fiscal irresponsibility'?
Shit, this asshole could give lessons on 'how to spend irresponsibly' to Paris Hilton.

The irony is that he's right about it being full of pork.
After all, why the fuck should the Federal government spend $50+ million to resand Imperial Beach in California?


Then of course we have the Democrats complaining that Bush doesn't take Katrina seriously.
They're right, but it makes them (and the Republicans who larded on their own pork as well) look like hypocrites when the load up a necessary bill with shit such as resanding the aforementioned beach.

How about passing a bill that addresses Katrina and other infrastructure needs without loading it up with bullshit?

[Duckie]

Then of course we have the Democrats complaining that Bush doesn't take Katrina seriously.
They're right, but it makes them (and the Republicans who larded on their own pork as well) look like hypocrites when the load up a necessary bill with shit such as resanding the aforementioned beach.

How about passing a bill that addresses Katrina and other infrastructure needs without loading it up with bullshit?

Congress is broken. If they didn't load it up with riders and pork it'd never get the necessary momentum to pass. It's been like that since before I or probably even you were born.

That's not a defense of it but rather a statement of reality. For one, they'd never override the veto without porkbarreling some votes in.