President Bush has vetoed a bill which includes a provision to make it an offence to import illegally logged timber.
But the Farm Bill is still likely to be enshrined in law as both Congress and the Senate have voted in favour of overriding the president’s decision.
The Farm Bill includes amendments to the Lacey Act that make it an offence to import, trade or sell illegally harvested timber in the US, which were based on the Combat Illegal Logging Act put forward by Senator Ron Wyden.
President Bush took the step to veto the bill as he believes it provides farmers with excessive subsidies at a time of high income for farms.
However, both Congress and the Senate voted with a two-thirds majority to override the veto, meaning it carries on in to law without the president’s signature.
In a further twist, the Associated Press has reported that the final version of the bill sent from Congress to the White House was missing a 34-page section, meaning President Bush vetoed a different bill to the one passed.
This could mean the bill has to go through the motions of being passed by both houses, vetoed and a veto override vote undertaken once more.
