It’s Outrageous

On Wednesday President Reagan said that he looked forward to bipartisan cooperation with the new Democratic-controlled 100th Congress. On Thursday he made a mockery of his own words with his pocket veto of the Clean Water Act.

The veto was outrageous. The manner in which it was executed was shameful. Had he scoured the history of the presidency, Reagan probably could not have found a more effective way of setting up a direct confrontation with a new Congress.

The bill passed the House 408 to 0 and the Senate 96 to 0. It will be introduced again on Jan. 6, the first day of the new Congress. It could be on the President’s desk within a week. This time he will not be able to duck an override vote with an end-of-session pocket veto.

This is not the first time that a President has had problems with the federal sewage-treatment construction program. Richard M. Nixon vetoed the first Clean Water Act on Oct. 17, 1972. It became law the very next day, when Congress overrode the veto. Nixon complained that the $25-billion, three-year program was budget-wrecking. Reagan vetoed the $20-billion, seven-year reauthorization on the same ground.

Since the original law was passed over Nixon’s objections, the cleanup of lakes and streams has been one of the nation’s most successful and popular environmental programs. Under the Clean Water Act, the federal government provides local government with up to 55% of the funds needed to build sewage-treatment and -disposal facilities. States match 15% of the cost. A bond issue to continue California’s matching-grant program won the endorsement of nearly 80% of the electorate last Tuesday.

Congress proposed phasing out the program between now and 1994, with the emphasis in the later years on grants to the states to finance loans to cities and towns for sewage-plant construction --a system similar to the program that California has had since 1960. Reagan wanted to end the program in just three years, limiting assistance to projects now under way. The cleanup job is not yet done, and it would be imprudent to cut off federal aid in such a short period.

If Reagan’s veto was a slap at Congress, it also was an affront to American voters. An apparently contrived delay in transmitting the bill to the White House allowed Reagan to wait until after the election before disclosing his decision. The tactic, at best, lacked dignity and courage, and just may have guaranteed an override should the President veto the bill again.