110907 Congress Turns Back

November 9, 2007

Congress Turns Back Bush’s Veto in a Test of Power

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — The Senate dealt President Bush the first veto override of his presidency on Thursday, with a resounding bipartisan vote to adopt a $23.2 billion water resources bill that authorizes popular projects across the country.

The vote of 79 to 14 sent a clear signal that the Democrats in control of Congress plan to test the power of the White House on other fronts, and it gave Republicans a chance to show distance from an unpopular president heading into a tough election year.

“We have said today, as a Congress to this president, you can’t just keep rolling over us like this,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, who led the charge on the water bill as chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

“You can’t make everything a fight because we’ll see it through,” Ms. Boxer added. “And that’s a big deal. It isn’t easy for members of the other side to stand up to a president in their own party. I know. I know what that’s like. It’s hard.”

Thirty-four of the Senate’s 49 Republicans voted to override.

If the Democrats have their way, Republicans will most likely find themselves in similarly difficult positions in the next few weeks as Congress looks to go toe to toe with the administration on a series of budget bills, most of which Mr. Bush has threatened to veto.

Lawmakers will also face decisions on a White House request for more money for the Iraq war; a continuing battle over children’s health insurance; the farm bill, which Mr. Bush has said he will veto; and a proposed change to the alternative minimum tax.

On the Iraq war, the Democrats prepared to offer the administration $50 billion but with strings attached, including a goal to withdraw troops by December 2008. Republicans quickly accused them of threatening to cut off money needed to support American troops.

“This bill is déjà vu all over again,” said Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip in the House. “The last time Democrats tried to tie funding for our troops to a date for surrender, they failed. And that was before the marked turnaround we’ve witnessed on the ground over the past several months.”

Meanwhile, the House on Thursday approved a $471 billion military spending bill, which omitted the president’s request for $196 billion for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, except for $12 billion specifically for vehicles that would protect soldiers from roadside bombs.

The bill would provide a 9 percent budget increase, or $40 billion, for the Pentagon. If the Senate, as expected, also approves, it could be the first spending bill this year signed by Mr. Bush.

But with the override on the water bill providing a huge morale boost for the Democrats, they began to draw some of the battle lines more clearly, accusing Mr. Bush of being too focused on the Iraq war and portraying themselves as more committed to domestic needs.

“The Congress disagrees with the president on priorities,” said Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland. “This override is a clear indication that the Congress, by an overwhelming vote, believes that we need to invest in our own country, here, that we have to invest for our future.”

The water bill authorizes popular projects in states across the country, including hurricane recovery efforts in Louisiana, environmental restoration in the Florida Everglades and flood control in California. But it does not actually appropriate money for the projects, which must be done in spending bills.

And it is on the spending front that the clash between Congressional Democrats and the White House will continue through the end of the year.

On Wednesday, the Senate approved a $151 billion spending bill for labor, health and education, a measure that Mr. Bush has said he will veto, after Senate Republicans succeeded in separating it from a $64 billion spending bill for military construction and veterans affairs that the president would probably sign.

The House approved the labor and health spending bill Thursday night, sending it to the White House for a near-certain veto. In both chambers, however, the Democrats were unable to muster the two-thirds majority needed for an override on the bill .

Mr. Bush did not publicly respond to the override of the water bill, but after a tour of a new treatment center for wounded veterans at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, he chastised Democratic leaders for linking the spending bill for veterans affairs to the larger labor-health bill.

“Now look, there’s obviously some disagreements between me and the Congress,” Mr. Bush said. “But there’s no disagreement over the amount of money we’re going to spend for veterans. And they need to get the bill — to do their job. They need to get the bill to the desk of the president as a stand-alone piece of legislation, so the veterans of this country understand that we’re going to support them.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in praising the Senate’s override on the water bill, accused the administration of mishandling the federal budget.

“Our commitment to real fiscal responsibility — no new deficit spending — contrasts sharply with the trillions of dollars in record deficits accumulated by the Bush administration,” said Ms. Pelosi, a California Democrat. “We are hopeful that the president will reconsider his chronic use of the veto to block the priorities of the American people, from water resources to ending the war in Iraq to providing health care for 10 million children.”

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said the administration was not surprised by the override.

“We understand that members of Congress are going to support the projects in their districts,” he said. “But budgeting is about making choices and defining priorities — it doesn’t mean you can have everything. 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.”

Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from San Antonio, and Carl Hulse from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/us/09spend.html