State Lawmakers Fighting for Glades Bill

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday reaffirmed a vow to veto a massive water resources bill that supporters say promises a badly needed $2 billion kick-start for stalled Everglades restoration.

The move, expected as early as this week, sets up a high-stakes face-off between Congress and the White House, with some key Florida lawmakers planning to lead an override campaign that could be the first of the Bush presidency.

The administration said its concerns aren’t specifically with the Everglades projects in the bill, but with many others across the nation proposed in a $23 billion congressional package it criticizes as "bloated" with political pork. Steve McMillin, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, argues the bill would produce the opposite effect environmentalists and Florida lawmakers envision — further delaying Glades projects already running years behind.

The Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, was passed by the House and Senate in September. It would authorize about 900 projects around the country but set aside no money for them. McMillin said the bill would instantly create a glut of new, far less important projects competing for increasingly scarce federal dollars in future budget fights.

Big-dollar projects such as restoring the Everglades and protecting Louisiana wetlands, the signature environmental efforts in the bill, would be placed at a disadvantage, he said.

"When they’re competing with 900 other projects, it undermines the promise that is implied by this bill," McMillin said. Also, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which directs WRDA projects, already is badly backlogged with existing projects as it is, he said.

"It’s going to take decades before the work gets done," McMillin said, "if ever."

McMillin said President Bush hopes Congress "takes another look and tosses out the lower-priority items."

OVERRIDE POSSIBLE

But a compromise proposal appears unlikely. Given the strong bipartisan support in passing the bill, and the response to White House efforts to shoot it down, Bush faces a realistic possibility of his first override.

Bush has rarely used vetoes in his tenure. No longer enjoying majority support in Congress, he has recently threatened vetoes of a number of spending bills.

Florida Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Orlando, and Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, sent a letter Tuesday urging the president to reconsider on WRDA. So did all of the state’s Democratic representatives — Alcee Hastings, Corrine Brown, Robert Wexler, Allen Boyd, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meek, Ron Klein, Tim Mahoney and Kathy Castor.

No House Republicans from the state signed the letter. But Miami Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen voted for the bill, and an aide to Ros-Lehtinen said Tuesday she would support an override. Mario Diaz-Balart has yet to decide about a vote to override, a spokeswoman said. A spokesman for Lincoln Diaz-Balart was not available late Tuesday.

Martinez, a Republican who generally supports the president, said he has tried to change minds at the White House without success. He said he shares concerns about "excessive spending," but "when you look at it on balance as a Florida senator, you’ve got to be for it. Everglades restoration hinges on it."

SHOW LEADERSHIP

April Gromnicki, director of ecosystems restoration for the National Audubon Society, which supports the bill, agreed someone in Washington needed to prioritize spending. But she said the White House has repeatedly failed to offer its own version detailing critical projects.

"We would look to the White House for leadership in proposing funding for ecosystem restoration projects in 2009," she said.

The bill would represent Congress’ stamp of approval for several key, long-delayed Everglades projects: a $1.36 billion cleanup of the Indian River Lagoon, a struggling estuary that runs through five Southeast Florida counties; $375 million to restore the Picayune Strand in Collier County; $119 million in Everglades pilot projects; and $81 million to build a 1,600-acre water storage reservoir in Palm Beach County.

It also authorizes a $125 million dredging expansion at the Port of Miami, $7.5 million to improve drinking water treatment for poor communities that draw from polluted Lake Okeechobee, and $1.5 million to study how to speed repair of the lake’s aging dike.

McMillin said the White House considers several of the Indian River and Picayune projects real priorities, but overall, the bill promises too much dubious work with no fiscally prudent way to pay for it.

"There are two bad options under this bill: Go to the American taxpayer to finance a large expansion of projects or, more likely, have the Corps try to make plans and end up being disappointed when the federal government doesn’t come through with the money," he said.