Congress overrides Bush’s veto of waterway bill

Congress overrides Bush’s veto of waterway bill For the first time in President Bush’s seven years in office, Congress has overridden one of his vetoes, enacting a $23 billion water resources bill over his objections.
   The Senate voted 73-14 on Thursday in favor of the override, joining the House of Representatives, which had voted 361-54 in overriding Bush’s veto of the Water Resources Development Act.
   The WRDA authorizes expenditures of $23 billion for hundreds of water resources projects such as harbor dredging, improvement of inland waterway locks and dams, hurricane protection and restoration of the Everglades.
   Congress received congratulations for the override from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Waterways Council, the American Association of Port Authorities, among others.
   “Congress acted swiftly to address the backlog of needs of our inland waterways and provided the Army Corps of Engineers the coordinated federal agenda we need to undertake hundreds of flood control, navigation and environmental mitigation projects over the next two years,' Janice Kavinoky, director of transportation and infrastructure at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.
   “This bill will provide the necessary infrastructure upgrades to ensure the competitiveness of the nation’s exports. This bill is long overdue.”