While lawmakers worked overtime in stuffing this Christmas stocking of a bill, they never got around to setting priorities. Without direction, the Corps’ work on hurricane protection for New Orleans, flood control in Sacramento and restoration of the Everglades would be jeopardized to fund projects of lesser importance -- such as $20 million for sewer overflow infrastructure in Atchison, Kan.; $15 million for wastewater infrastructure in Willmar, Minn.; and $5 million for drinking water infrastructure for the village of Kyrias-Joel, N.Y., according to The Heritage Foundation’s Nicola Moore and Alison Acosta Fraser.
“A prime example of legislation run amok,” Moore and Fraser wrote in their analysis of the bill. They said the legislation would be a boon for beach-front property owners. “While most projects in the Army Corps of Engineers budget undergo a thorough cost-benefit analysis,” they wrote, “many of the earmarks were won by lobbyists working on behalf of special interests representing beach-front property owners.”
Take beach dredging, for example. It’s often sold as environmental restoration but critics say it’s both wasteful and environmentally damaging. The dredge lobby secured a provision in WRDA to give the Corps’ control over so-called “beach nourishment” projects. Despite the pretty prose, such projects face vigorous opposition from beachgoers because they have degraded or destroyed the ecology of vast stretches of coast, in some cases making the shoreline worthless for fishing, surfing and diving.
The significance of this veto goes beyond the limited issue of the federal government’s role in dredging beaches. It represents the president’s decision to lay down a marker for spending battles to come in the weeks ahead. Like it or not, SCHIP expansion is in many ways a battle over health care spending and the size and scope of government. The same goes for the 12 appropriations bills that are $23 billion over Bush’s requested level.
By picking a fight with Congress, Bush has strengthened his credentials among conservatives who have longed for the White House to take an aggressive stand against fiscal irresponsibility. But he has his work cut out for him if he’s to convince members of Congress to sustain this veto.
Despite the high cost of the bill and its insane amount of pet projects, even staunch conservatives such as Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) have gone to great lengths to defend the measure. “I am a staunch fiscal conservative,” Inhofe wrote to the Oklahoman, “but I am not apologetic about increased spending on our nation’s defense and infrastructure needs.”
Conservatives can support our nation’s defense and infrastructure needs without countenancing the bloated, undisciplined spending exemplified by the Water Resources Development Act. Here’s hoping fiscally responsible lawmakers can summon the spine to spurn this pork-packed monstrosity.