House Votes to Override Veto of Clean Water Act

The House, handing President Reagan his first major defeat in the 100th Congress, voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to override his veto of the $20-billion extension of the Clean Water Act, rejecting arguments that the measure is fiscally irresponsible.

The legislation, approved on a 401-26 vote, extends federal construction subsidies for local sewage treatment programs through 1994. The bill could become law as early as today, when the Senate, which earlier approved the measure by a 93-6 margin, is scheduled to vote on an override.

Called ‘Pork Barrel’

In vetoing the legislation Friday, Reagan insisted that he was dedicated to the continued cleanup of the nation’s waters, but he assailed the bill as a budget-busting example of “pork barrel” politics. The White House had proposed a $12-billion clean water program as a compromise with Congress, but the Senate strongly rejected that plan.

Democrats, seeking to seize control of Washington’s legislative agenda, insisted Tuesday that the public was prepared to pay for environmental improvements.

“This is not a wild spending spree by a spendthrift Congress,” said Rep. James J. Howard (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, noting that an Environmental Protection Agency study had estimated that the nation needs to spend $100 billion on sewage control by the year 2000. “We cannot ignore the water pollution needs documented by the President’s own EPA.”

The measure, a compromise pieced together by the House and Senate during three years of discussions, has broad bipartisan support. GOP members voted 147 to 26 to overturn the President’s veto.

House Republican leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois had tried to organize support for the President. Michel said he had earlier voted for the legislation to send a message to the White House that it had been too slow in offering a compromise measure. However, after Reagan vetoed the bill, it became time for Republicans to close ranks, he said.

‘Prudent Balance’

“The question is not whether we spend tax dollars for clean water but rather what’s the prudent balance to be struck between tax-dollar expenditures and policy goals,” Michel added. “The President says we can do better, and I suspect we can.”

Several Democrats contrasted White House objections to the water cleanup bill with Reagan’s defense spending plans. Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose) said the President’s proposed 1988 defense budget would cost “17 times as much as we want to spend for clean water in eight years.”

If the Senate joins in the override, it would be the seventh of Reagan’s presidency and the first since October, when Congress imposed trade and travel sanctions against South Africa over the President’s objections.

Pocket Veto Used

The House and Senate initially passed the clean water legislation in October, but Reagan killed that measure with a pocket veto after Congress had adjourned. Congressional leaders reintroduced identical legislation soon after Congress returned last month, certain that the measure could be enacted regardless of the President’s action. The House had passed the bill on Jan. 8 by a vote of 406 to 8.

A veto override requires a two-thirds majority of those present in each house. The House, which needed 286 votes, easily met the two-thirds standard. In the Senate, where at most 67 votes will be necessary for an override, 76 senators sent the President a letter before his veto, urging him to sign the legislation.

The measure provides $18 billion over nine years to construct local sewage systems, including $8.4 billion to be distributed to localities by states as low-interest loans through revolving loan programs.

Runoff From Streets

The bill contains an additional $2 billion in noncontroversial funding, including $400 million over four years to combat polluted water runoff from streets and farms. It tightens controls on discharges of toxic substances into lakes and rivers, creates a new program to monitor pollution in the Great Lakes and increases civil and criminal penalties for violation of the act.

In California, the legislation would provide $1.3 billion for sewage system construction, as well as funding for several long-sought projects. Among them are a system to protect San Diego County from sewage that flows across the border from Tijuana, Mexico; an experimental sludge pipeline off the Orange County coastline, municipal sewage improvements on Catalina Island and an estuary protection plan for San Francisco Bay.

Six California Republicans voted against the veto override Tuesday: Reps. Robert E. Badham of Newport Beach, William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton, Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove, Wally Herger of Yuba City, Jerry Lewis of Highland and Daniel E. Lungren of Long Beach.