House Votes to Override Water Bill Veto

President Bush addresses the White House Forum on International Trade and Investment at the Eisenhower Executive Office building in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

Flood protection projects along the Gulf Coast, including 100-year levee protection in New Orleans, would cost about $7 billion if fully funded. The bill approves projects but does not fund them.

It would authorize the construction of navigation improvements for the Upper Mississippi River, at an estimated federal cost of $1.9 billion, and an ecosystem restoration project for the Upper Mississippi costing $1.7 billion.

The Indian River Lagoon project in the Florida Everglades would be funded at about $700 million.

Addressing the issue of wastefulness in past Army Corps projects, the bill calls for an independent peer review process of all Corps projects costing $45 million or more.

The Senate is expected to approve the veto override by a comfortable margin. Last month, some 20 Senate Republicans, including conservatives such as David Vitter, R-La., and Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., wrote Bush urging him to support the bill. "Hurricane Katrina and the Interstate 35 bridge collapse in Minnesota are two recent examples of the dangers in under-investing in our nation's key infrastructure," they wrote.

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The bill is H.R. 1495

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