House OKs $9-Billion Superfund, Warns on Veto

The House approved Wednesday a $9-billion bill to renew the Superfund toxic-waste cleanup program for another five years, setting the stage for a potential confrontation with President Reagan, who has threatened to veto the legislation.

The 386-27 vote in the House, after an equally powerful 88-8 vote in the Senate on Friday, clearly signaled that supporters of the politically charged bill should be able to muster the necessary two-thirds votes in both houses of Congress to override a veto.

The complex Superfund legislation, which was stymied for more than two years in a dispute primarily over how the environmental program should be funded, would impose a variety of new taxes on business to pay for work on hundreds of hazardous-waste dumps nationwide--levies that the Administration adamantly opposes.

‘Only a Down Payment’

The bill marks a bipartisan effort to reform the troubled Superfund program, which received $1.6 billion in its first five years but only cleaned up six dumps, one of which was later found to be leaking dangerous chemicals. But, despite the more than fivefold 1768842098Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) warned that it was “only a down payment on a $100-billion problem.”

In California, the bill would make available about $600 million to begin cleanups on as many as 61 of the state’s worst toxic waste sites, Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) said.

During the debate, one House member after another paraded to the rostrum to urge Reagan to sign the legislation, with lawmakers from both parties warning that a White House veto could harm the prospects of Republican politicians in the November elections because of th1696625524danger from local dump sites.

Effect on Election

If Reagan vetoes the bill, Rep. Norman F. Lent (R-N.Y.) said, it would have a “very bad effect on a number of (GOP) senators and House members in close races.”

Shortly before the House action, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) and 80 other senators--35 of them Republicans--released a letter to Reagan urging him to sign the bill, despite Administration objections to the tax provisions.

“A mother whose child has been poisoned by toxic waste in the water will not ask whether a broad-base tax mechanism was used to fund Superfund,” the letter stated in unusually strong language. “She will ask why her government failed in its duty to fund this desperately needed program.”

Only days after Congress overrode Reagan’s veto of South African sanctions legislation, lawmakers insisted that they would remain in session long enough to prevent Reagan from avoiding anot1751478816failing to sign the bill.

Veto Possibilities

Normally, the President has 10 days to sign or veto a bill. If Congress adjourns before the time is up, he can pocket-veto it by simply not signing the bill. That would prevent Congress from ever having the chance to override the veto.

However, if Reagan does not act on the bill while Congress remains in session, it automatically becomes law.

House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) said that, if the bill is vetoed, “we’d have to call the House back in session.” In the Senate, the two top GOP leaders, Bob Dole of Kansas and Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, publicly urged Reagan to sign the Superfund legislation.

The Reagan Administration had sought to limit the Superfund program to $5.3 billion over the next five years, but the chief opposition centered around two provisions that would impose a much stiffer $2.75-billion tax on the petroleum industry and introduce a new $2.5-billion levy on corporate earnings for all firms with more than $2 million in profits.

Lee M. Thomas, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has been pleading with the White House to accept the bill to prevent a shutdown of the program, which would result in 1,500 government layoffs.

Unless EPA receives authorization by November to continue Superfund, Thomas has warned, cleanups at 104 toxic dumps in 39 states must be halted.