Wilson to Meet Bush in Effort to Kill Water Bill

Gov. Pete Wilson is scheduled to meet with President Bush this morning in Nashville to urge him to veto landmark water legislation that would overhaul California’s Central Valley Project, according to Republican sources.

The meeting, which had been scheduled for the White House, had to be postponed after the President’s political schedule kept him away from the capital during the campaign’s hectic final weeks.

Bush had been inclined to veto the CVP bill. But it was attached to a package of water projects favored by other western states whose senators have been pressuring the White House to sign the bill.

White House spokeswoman Laura Melillo said Thursday that Bush was still reviewing the legislation and had not yet determined whether he would sign it. Bush has until Saturday to act on the legislation.

The water bill, passed overwhelmingly by the Senate on Oct. 8, was bitterly opposed by Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), who argued that the bill would cause vast economic harm in the state’s Central Valley.