Baird follows own rule on flood bill

CONGRESS: House plan boosts Chehalis River Basin projects

BY ERIC SCHWARTZ | The Chronicle (Centralia) • Published October 03, 2009

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CENTRALIA - U.S. Rep. Brian Baird voted against a bill that included funding for two Chehalis River Basin flood control projects in his own district Thursday.

The Vancouver Democrat said he voted against the $34 billion spending bill for one reason � he wanted time for him and his colleagues to read it.

The nearly 400 pages of legislation was passed by a wide margin in the House of Representatives a mere 19 hours after it was introduced. Baird is in the midst of a renewed effort to push a discharge petition that would require lawmakers to vote on whether or not to wait at least 72 hours before approving major legislation.

The petition that would force a vote on the House floor currently has 181 of the 218 signatures that are required, according to a release from Baird�s Washington, D.C., office.

�At some point we have to draw lines in the sand and say, �This is unnecessary and foolish,� � Baird said.

Baird has been pushing his 72-hour rule for five years, and said he promised to pursue it regardless of which party is in charge. With Democrats at the helm of the presidency and both houses of Congress, he said the bill provided an opportunity to �prove his consistency� and make a statement on the importance of the measure.

The appropriations bill passed Thursday includes federal allocations for two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects in the Chehalis River Basin. The legislation, which still requires Senate approval, grants $672,000 to both the Twin Cities Project, which calls for 11 miles of levees in and around Centralia and Chehalis, and the general investigation into basinwide flood control and ecosystem restoration.

Though the bill passed by a large margin, Baird said he would have voted against it even if it were close.

He said that too often senators and representatives �thumb through the bill� to find their own projects and then vote in favor for that reason only. Had the spending bill been voted down, he said it would have returned to the floor regardless.

Baird said his discharge petition was filed before the August recess, which was highlighted by raucous town halls focusing on the push for health care reform.

�This is not in response,� he said. �This is actually ahead of the �read the bill� rhetoric that came out during town halls.�

Baird cited a recent Rasmussen poll reporting that 83 percent of respondents, across party lines, think Congress should post bills online for all to read before voting on them. He said his constituency has spoken strongly on the issue, and he believes now is the time to implement his own legislation that would require just that.

The federal appropriation for flood control projects in the Chehalis River Basin was one of his top priorities when requesting funding, Baird said, and the passage of the bill will further efforts to prevent catastrophic flooding in Lewis County.