Reagan, Admitting Futility, Vetoes Bill for Clean Water

WASHINGTON — President Reagan, calling on Congress to show “a little more political courage,” vetoed a $20-billion clean water bill today but acknowledged he lacks the votes to be sustained.

Pinning the blame for big budget deficits on Congress, Reagan said “Let’s not belly up to the same old bar, let’s not drive down that dangerous road again. Let’s work together for clean water and responsible government.”

Reagan made a ceremony out of his veto, announcing it to an audience of invited guests in the Old Executive Office Building. He entered the room brandishing thumbs up and left it the same way. When he was handed the water bill, the President pretended to throw it away.

‘Just Say No!’

“Just say no!” shouted someone in the audience. “I just said no,” Reagan responded.

He addressed his remarks to Congress, recalling that only on Tuesday, when he delivered the State of the Union message, he received a standing ovation--mostly from Cabinet members and Republicans--in calling the deficit unacceptable and outrageous.

“Well, I’m now asking you to stand with me in the first great battle of the deficit in the 100th Congress,” Reagan said. “My friends on Capitol Hill, you cannot have it both ways.

“You cannot vote to radically increase deficits once day and decry them before the nation the next. It’s time for a little more political courage and a little more political consistency on the part of all of us.”

The House has scheduled a vote on overriding the veto for next Tuesday and Senate action is expected later in the week. A two-thirds vote by both chambers is required to enact the bill over Reagan’s objection.

The bill was passed 406 to 6 by the House and 93 to 6 by the Senate earlier this month.

Reagan rejected an identical bill in November but that action was not subject to an override because it was a pocket veto, exercised after Congress had quit for the year.

“I know this veto is going to be overridden,” Reagan said. “I know that I do not have the votes to sustain it, but it’s time we did the right thing, all of us, regardless of the political fallout.”

Senator Responds

The action drew an immediate response from lawmakers and environmental groups.

“We gave him two chances to get on board, but now the President has simply postponed the inevitable,” said Sen. Quentin N. Burdick (D-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

“The Senate wants this bill, the House wants this bill, the American people want this bill. The President stands alone on this one,” Burdick said.

Lawrence Downing, president of the Sierra Club, called the veto “an insult to the health and the environment of the American people.”