President Bush vetoed a 23-billion dollar bill last week authorizing waterways infrastructure projects around the country, including repairs to the leaky Wolf Creek Dam upstream of Nashville. But both of Tennessee’s senators say Congress will override the veto.
The state’s republican senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, voted for the Water Resources Development Act. Corker says Bush’s veto was unusual since the bill is basically just a list of what projects are needed and how much they’ll cost.
“Usually only a fraction of the projects that are authorized end up getting funded. SO again, I think it’s an odd thing for him to do especially for the administration to do, especially when it’s been so many years since we’ve had a bill like this, an authorization bill. We’ve fallen way behind.”
Congress passed the last waterways act in 2000. Corker says the administration has been trying to establish a record of fiscal conservatism in the last year. Senator Alexander says this isn’t the bill for the administration to make that stand.
“The big money–the big increases in spending are in Medicare, Medicaid, and in interest on the debt. And in addition to that, the war is going on. So we can’t stop the government and not repair the dams and locks and have clean water, just because other parts of the budget are out of control.”
The authorization bill passed with overwhelming margins in the Senate and the House, leading both Corker and Alexander to predict the override of the President’s veto will pass as well.
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