US House sustains Trump vetoes of water projects in Colorado, Florida

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert gives a victory speech on the importance of uniting the Republican Party and “taking back our country” during a watch party on June 25, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Fraieli/Colorado Newsline)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Thursday to sustain two vetoes by President Donald Trump of noncontroversial measures supported by members of both parties.

Several Republicans voted with Democrats to override the vetoes, giving both measures majorities that were still short of the two-thirds necessary. 

Just before New Year’s, Trump vetoed two bills Congress passed without any recorded opposition in either chamber last year. They were the first vetoes of his second term.

One bill would reduce interest payments that Coloradans in the Arkansas River Valley must pay for the construction of a water pipeline to Pueblo communities. The override vote for that bill failed 248-177.

The other would require the Interior Department to protect structures within Florida’s Osceola Camp from flooding. That vote failed 236-188.

Trump said both would be too costly for federal taxpayers.

Colorado members call for override

The House sponsor of the Colorado bill, Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert, urged her colleagues in a Thursday floor speech to override the veto.

“Contrary to what the veto message states, my bill does not authorize any additional federal funding,” Boebert said Thursday. “It simply modifies the repayment terms for small, rural communities in my district, so they are able to afford their 35% cost-share of the project that they are statutorily obligated to repay.”

The bill extends Obama-era repayment terms for the local cost-share of a project the federal government approved in 1962.

The Dec. 29 White House veto message said the measure “would continue the failed policies of the past by forcing Federal taxpayers to bear even more of the massive costs of a local water project — a local water project that, as initially conceived, was supposed to be paid for by the localities using it.”

Members claim political retribution

Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, endorsed Boebert’s argument, but added stronger words opposing Trump’s veto.

“This bill will cost taxpayers virtually nothing, as was referenced, and it makes good on a promise to the people of rural Colorado,” he said. “We are here because … the president has declared war on our state.”

Neguse, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, and House Natural Resources Committee ranking Democrat Jared Huffman of California all said the vetoes were part of political payback by the White House, though they did not offer additional context.

“No one voted against this bill,” Wasserman Schultz said. “This bill is entirely non-controversial, and it is so narrowly focused that it makes absolutely no sense, other than the interest in vengeance that seems to have emanated in this result.”

Trump avoids another rebuke

The mid-afternoon vote was poised to be Congress’ second rejection of Trump on Thursday, after five Senate Republicans joined Democrats to advance a measure to rein in the administration’s military activity in Venezuela. 

House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican, said he supported sustaining the veto because he trusted the administration.

“I respect the administration’s views on this legislation and its commitment to fiscal responsibility,” Westerman said of the Colorado bill. He made a similar statement about the Florida bill.