As signed, the controversial measure will delay the deadline for cleaning up the Everglades. But the governor has asked lawmakers to revise it.
By CRAIG PITTMAN and JULIE HAUSERMAN
Published May 21, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush went behind closed doors Tuesday to sign a controversial Everglades bill and then asked lawmakers to change it.
But the changes didn't satisfy the bill's most prominent critics, a pair of Republican members of Congress. They said the new bill fails to fix the biggest problem: delaying by a decade or more the deadline for cleaning up pollution in the Everglades.
U.S. Rep. E. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, and Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, said they were disappointed Bush did not simply veto the bill and ask the Legislature to pass a new version. Bush said he could not do that because of logistics. He did not elaborate.
The changes the governor proposes are almost entirely aimed at removing phrases such as "to the maximum extent practicable," which Shaw had labeled "weasel words" that undermine tough limits on pollution.
Delaying the deadline for cleaning up phosphorus remains "a sticking point," Shaw said.
Shaw, Goss and other members of Congress have warned that tampering with the deadline could endanger federal funding for an ambitious $8-billion project to restore the Everglades' water flow.
House Appropriations Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, and other members of his committee issued a statement that said:
"While it is premature to detail what specific impact this action will have on federal funding for the Everglades, it could have a serious effect on the allocation of funds for the project."
Dexter Lehtinen, who represents the Miccosukee Indians, who live in the Everglades and want the cleanup accelerated, said the latest efforts to fix the controversial bill are not enough.
"This is not in any real way correcting the flaws of the bill," he said.
A bill incorporating the changes easily passed the Senate Natural Resources Committee Tuesday, and Senate sponsor Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, criticized environmentalists for opposing it.
"I don't trust your opinion," Lawson snapped after Thom Rhumberger, a lobbyist for the Everglades Trust, told the committee that the bill still endangers the state-federal partnership.
The controversial nature of the legislation was underscored by the way Bush signed the bill. State officials would not allow a St. Petersburg Times reporter into the governor's office to watch.
"The governor signs many bills in public, but this bill isn't finished. There are amendments that need to be passed," Bush spokeswoman Jill Bratina said later. "That would be the appropriate time to do a more ceremonial bill signing."
At the bill signing were legislative sponsors Lawson and Rep. Joseph Spratt, R-LaBelle, along with state Department of Environmental Protection secretary David Struhs and South Florida Water Management District executive director Henry Dean.
Spratt refused to comment on his bill.
Environmental activists say the new bill would offer little more than cosmetic changes that would not alter the bill's fundamental flaws.
"I am sure there will be a lot more lipstick put on this pig, but I bet - sadly for the Everglades - that it will still say oink," longtime Everglades activist Joette Lorion said.
About 30 minutes after the governor signed the bill, Sierra Club activists showed up with 17,000 signatures on a petition asking the governor to veto it. With their mission thwarted, the activists instead criticized Bush and state legislators for pushing the bill through so quickly.
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who this week joined the crowd of Democratic presidential candidates who had called on Bush to veto the bill, on Tuesday urged the governor to consult with federal agencies about any changes.
Bush, who spent time Tuesday afternoon questioning scientists about the technical details of the Everglades restoration project, said he was is unconcerned about the uproar.
"I sleep well at night," he said. "I don't fret too much because I think we are on the right track.'
- Times staff writer Lucy Morgan contributed to this story.
