House votes in favor of lower drinking water arsenic levels

By CNN Capitol Hill Producer Ted Barrett

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican moderates, defying President Bush, joined Democrats and voted Friday to block any White House effort to lower standards for arsenic levels in drinking water that had been set by the Clinton administration.

By a vote of 218 to 198, 19 Republicans voted with the Democrats on the politically sensitive issue, which was attached to a $112.7 billion spending bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other government agencies.

The influence of moderate Republicans in the House has been highlighted in recent weeks as they joined Democrats in pushing for campaign finance reform and a patients' of bill of rights. They also voted to block drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes over the objection of the White House.

"They are flowing into the mainstream of where American politics and the American people are," Democratic Whip David Bonior, D-Michigan, who sponsored the amendment, told CNN after the vote. "Nobody wants to have high levels of arsenic in their drinking water. They understand that. They voted with us today to implement that."

"This is purely political," a White House aide told CNN as the vote was getting underway, arguing that the science behind the issue does not support the arsenic level changes ordered in late January by the outgoing Clinton administration.

But an aide to Bonior disagreed.

"This is an important issue. Arsenic kills people. And you can't play with this. You can't explain back home any reason to delay implementing arsenic standards," Allison Remsen said.

The Clinton administration changed the standard that had been set in 1942 from 50 parts per billion of arsenic in drinking water to 10 parts per billion.

After taking office, President George Bush ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to study the matter to determine if the costly regulation was worth implementing. Funding for that study, which is still underway, and any proposed changes to the arsenic levels, would be cut off if the House measure became law.

A similar provision has not been taken up in the Senate but would likely face a presidential veto if were passed.