News-Press.com
August 02, 2007
Bush administration cites cost concerns
WASHINGTON — President Bush threatened Wednesday to veto a massive waterresources bill that would authorize $1.8 billion worth of restoration projectsin the Florida Everglades.
The threat came just as the House prepared to take up a compromise version ofthe bill that House and Senate lawmakers crafted late last week.
In a letter sent to lawmakers, the Bush administration said it opposed themeasure’s hefty price tag.
“It seems a $14 billion Senate bill went into conference with the House’s $15billion bill and somehow a bill emerged costing approximately $20 billion,”said the letter from the Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portmanand John Paul Woodley, assistant Army secretary over the Corps of Engineers.
“This is not how most Americans would expect their representatives inWashington to reach agreement, especially when it is their tax dollars that arebeing spent.”
The Water Resources Development Act, the bill’s formal title, would authorizedozens of Army Corps projects intended to improve access to water supplies,restore coastal shorelines and improve flood control throughout the nation.
Among Florida projects, the bill would authorize:
• $1.38 billion for the Indian River Lagoon South, including projects forecosystem restoration, flood damage reduction and protection of water quality.
• $375 million for environmental restoration of Picayune Strand to helpincrease freshwater flows to natural areas.
• $80.8 million for the environmental restoration of Site 1 Impoundment.
The act is supposed to be renewed every two years, but the last authorizationpassed was in 2000.
April Gromnicki, ecosystems restoration director for Audubon, described thelegislation as “three bills in one.”
“It’s really not that much if we had been passing bills all along. It wouldcumulatively be the same,” she said. “These have been building up, whichresults in a much larger bill than had we kept up with the bills every twoyears.”
Gromnicki also expressed optimism there would be enough congressional supportto override any presidential veto.
Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Democrat whose district includes much of Charlotte County,promised to fight any veto threat.
“The president continues to demonstrate that he is out of touch with the wishesof the people of Florida and America by not funding the ComprehensiveEverglades Restoration Projects,” he said.
Under an agreement reached between Florida and the federal government, all CERPcosts would be split 50-50, Mahoney pointed out.
Bush’s failure to live up to the federal government’s commitment to pay forhalf the costs for Everglades restoration “has unfairly burdened the citizensof the Florida who have honored their word by providing over $2 billion whilehe has contributed nothing,” he said.