A congressional override of this presidential veto is absolutely imperative to ensuring the safety and viability of our nation’s water infrastructure.  For the President to veto this legislation under the guise of “fiscal responsibility,� is hypocritical at best.

The tab for the President’s endless war in Iraq is now in excess of $600 billion, and counting.  The interest on the amount we have borrowed to fund the war is $25 billion per year.  This veto is a stark reminder that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war in Iraq have been at the expense of pressing priorities here at home.  According to today’s New York Times, in the five years since the war began over, $45 billion has been spent on restoring the infrastructure in Iraq.  This is double the $23 billion price tag a bipartisan majority of Congress seeks for a seven-year backlog of much needed projects.

When it comes to domestic priorities, the President has decided against investing in America.  President Bush vetoed expanding health care for children and vetoed research for life-threatening diseases.  He has vetoed benchmarks for Iraq, and has threatened vetoes on investments ranging from education to law enforcement.  Are these the priorities of America, or are these the misplaced priorities of an administration hopelessly out of step with the American people?

I have always believed that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.�  If we learned anything from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, it is that investment in our nation’s infrastructure is necessary before a disaster strikes, rather than paying for the consequences afterward.  This is a lesson I had hoped President Bush understood, but it is apparent that if he had, it was a lesson soon forgotten.

The Water Resources Development Act benefits all Americans and their families who use and enjoy our Nation’s waterways, public beaches – including over 300 miles of coastline along my district – and for U.S. businesses that depend on healthy and viable waterways throughout the country.  My district benefits from the good work that the Army Corps of Engineers does for coastal communities by helping small towns deal with multiple concerns ranging from erosion to long-standing environmental challenges.

H.R. 1495 will go a long way toward supplying the Corps with all the resources it needs to protect coastal communities by modernizing project planning and approval.  We simply cannot afford to let another year go by without passing this legislation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 10:59 am and is filed under Economy/Budget, Politics .