Congress poised for 1st veto override; Minnesota stands to be a big winner

WASHINGTON - History will record that the first veto override of the Bush presidency will come over an obscure water resources bill that includes more than $97 million for Minnesota infrastructure projects from Lake Superior to the Mississippi River.

It also approves levee protection for New Orleans, along with a host of flood projects in Minnesota and across the country, with benefits spread wide enough to virtually guarantee a successful override vote in the Senate today.

An earlier vote that sent the bill to the president's desk in September passed the Senate 81 to 12, easily surpassing the two-thirds majority needed to sustain a veto. Minnesota Sens. Norm Coleman, a Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, both backed the bill and have said they will vote to override Bush.

The House voted 361 to 54 on Tuesday to override the veto.

Minnesota's entire House delegation voted to negate the veto, including Republican stalwarts who normally support the president.

Among them was Rep. Michele Bachmann, who originally voted against the bill when the House passed it in April.

Bachmann explained her change of heart this week by citing stronger cost accounting measures for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The White House has characterized the $23.2 billion bill as pork-laden and costly. Bush vetoed the bill on Friday.

Lawmakers in both parties have criticized the veto, mostly to protect regional projects that they view as money well spent.

Bachmann, for example, cited money to repair levees and to stabilize flooding in such areas as Rockford, Minn., near the Crow River. "The longer we wait," she said, "the more expensive it will be."

Bigger locks speed cargo

The bill approves an array of big-ticket projects that are important to Minnesota, including a flood control project in Roseau, Minn., lock and dam improvements on the Upper Mississippi River, and navigation projects that help shipping on Lake Superior.

The money would lengthen the locks along the river. Most barge tows carrying loads of bulk commodities such as grain and corn must be separated before they can continue along the river.

Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, said the lock improvements could save farmers time and money.

"By going to the longer locks they can go through an entire tow in one time, so it would cut the amount of time to get through the locks in half," he said.

Although the $2 billion in navigation improvements is not popular with some environmentalists, the spending is offset by some $1.6 billion to restore ecosystems and protect against invasive species in the Upper Mississippi-Illinois Waterway.

Whitney Clark, executive director of the environmental group Friends of the Mississippi, said though the environmental community has been divided on whether the water bill goes far enough, "$1.6 billion in authorizations for ecosystems restoration is pretty darn attractive."

The bill also authorizes $341 million to construct a second lock at Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan, which ships must pass through to get from Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes.

"It'll result in a more efficient movement of ships as traffic has increased in the last couple years," said Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

Another provision in the bill that would increase efficiency is the authorization for the Army Corps of Engineers to begin dredging many Great Lakes harbors and channels neglected in recent years because of the lack of funding.

"If we do not begin dredging now, products like taconite, coal and grain will become too expensive to ship on the Great Lakes," said Democrat Jim Oberstar, a leading sponsor of the bill.

Just 'a trickle'

Democrats said the spending is a trickle compared with the continuing costs of the war in Iraq. "If this administration thinks it can spend $12 billion a month in Iraq, then tell local communities they shouldn't be doing flood mitigation, then they're out of touch," Klobuchar said. "This is meat and potatoes for local communities."

Coleman said that while he appreciated the president's call for fiscal responsibility, "this bill is simply not the way to go about it." He called the projects in the bill "a must-do for the future of Minnesota's infrastructure."

Washington Bureau correspondent Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753