Washington - The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to overturn President George W Bush's veto of a 23-billion- dollar water projects bill, for the first time moving to pass a bill over the president's objections. The override passed 361-54.
The bill includes 900 water projects such as dams and levees, most of which were added by members of Congress to benefit their districts.
It does not actually set aside funds for the projects, but authorizes the priorities for future budget efforts.
In vetoing the bill, Bush said it was fiscally irresponsible.
But the measure enjoys broad bipartisan support, and supporters say it finances necessary projects including measures to protect New Orleans and the Gulf Coast from massive flooding like that seen after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
A two-thirds vote is required to overcome a presidential veto and make a bill into law despite his objections.
The Senate must still take up the override, but it was considered likely to pass the vote in the upper chamber of Congress.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said prior to the vote Bush was "fine with being overridden on this bill," because it did not allocate funds to the projects.
Perino said the bill would create a backlog of projects that would not be completed for years.
"I don't know if I would be proud, as a member of Congress, to be overriding the president ... and authorizing spending worth billions of dollars of extra taxpayer dollars that would go to projects that won't necessarily get done for many, many years," she said.
