Bush Veto Overridden for First Time as Senate Enacts Water Projects Bill

WASHINGTON — Congress handed President Bush the first veto override of his administration Thursday as the Senate voted overwhelmingly for a bill authorizing $23 billion in popular water projects.

"This veto override sends an unmistakable message that Democrats both will continue to strengthen our environment and economy, and will refuse to allow President Bush to block America's real priorities for partisan reasons," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said after the Senate's 79-14 vote.

RICK MCKAY/Cox Newspapers (enlarge photo) Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Ca., left, with Senators Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., Bill Nelson, D-Fl. and Ben Cardin, D-Md., at a news conference Thursday following the Senate vote for a popular $23 billion water bill which handed President Bush his first defeat in a veto showdown with Congress. RICK MCKAY/Cox Newspapers (enlarge photo) Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fl., center, flanked by Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., left and Ben Cardin, D-Md., right, at a news conference Thursday following the Senate vote for a popular $23 billion water bill which handed President Bush his first defeat in a veto showdown with Congress.

Thirty-four Republicans joined the vote to override Bush, while two Democrats voted to sustain the veto.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., voted to sustain, while Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., voted to override.

Both Florida senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez, voted to override.

Both Georgia senators, Republicans Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, voted to override.

Both Ohio senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican George Voinovich, voted to override.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., voted to sustain, while Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., voted to override.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, voted to override, while Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, did not vote.

The House voted 361-54 to override the veto Tuesday. Both votes easily exceeded the two-thirds majority needed in each chamber to enact a bill over a presidential veto.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush vetoed the bill because "the president is standing up for the taxpayers."

"This bill doesn't make the difficult choices; it says we can fund every idea out there. That's not a responsible way to budget," she said.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) authorizes hundreds of major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects across the country, including dams, sewage plants, coastal protection and water cleanup. Before any of the projects can actually go forward, Congress would have to appropriate funds in a separate vote.

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., called the bill "one of the few areas where we actually do something constructive," and argued that what the administration has called "pork barrel" projects "are good, deserved, justified projects."

The bill authorizes strengthening New Orleans levees damaged by Hurricane Katrina, $2 billion to restore the Florida Everglades, and $1.9 million to improve navigation on the upper Mississippi River.

Bush has vetoed five bills during his term in office, all in his second term. His four previous vetoes were of two bills that would have eased restrictions on stem cell research, one that set a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, and one that reauthorized the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Republicans had been able to muster enough votes to block the two-thirds majority needed in each house for an override. But on the widely popular WRDA bill, the Republican leadership did not try to cast the override vote as a partisan issue.

The WRDA bill is likely to the first in a series of bruising battles between the president and Congress over federal spending.

Congress has yet to send Bush any of its 13 annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began five weeks ago. Democratic leaders who want to spend more than $20 billion more than Bush requested are packaging bills to fund health, education and labor programs together with those for military construction and veterans in hopes of getting Bush to accept the combination.

But the president has repeatedly warned that he will veto those packages.

"Congress is not getting its work done," Bush said last week. He said it "should pass each bill one at a time in a fiscally responsible manner."

Reid said Bush's veto of the WRDA bill and his threats to veto the appropriation bills demonstrates "how out of touch he is with the American people. Perhaps the president will finally recognize that Congress is an equal branch of government and reconsider his many other reckless veto threats."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.