The House failed to get the votes needed Thursday to override President Trump’s first vetoes of his second term — two infrastructure bills for Colorado and Florida.
The president last month vetoed the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act and the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act.
An override requires Congress’ two-thirds vote. Both bills passed unanimously in both chambers before Mr. Trump’s veto.
The former would finish a 130-mile pipeline bringing drinking water to 39 Colorado communities. It would help the towns pay for the project by removing interest payments and extending the repayment period to 100 years.
The pipeline was first proposed in 1962 during the Kennedy administration, but it was not built because the communities could not afford to pay 100% of the costs. President Obama signed a law in 2009 for the federal government to cover some of the cost.
The latter would add a part of Florida’s Everglades National Park, called the Osceola Camp, to the Miccosukee Reserved Area, with the Interior Department needing to protect it from flooding.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, who sponsored the bill for the Arkansas Valley Conduit, said during floor debate that the bill “makes good on not only a 60-year-plus commitment … but it also makes good on President Trump’s commitment to rural communities, to western water issues.”
Rep. Joe Neguse, Colorado Democrat, argued that Mr. Trump vetoed the bill because he “declared war on our state.”
And, Rep. Jeff Hurd, Colorado Republican, and co-sponsor of the bill, said the veto “should give every member pause.”
“This bill is not about defying the president. It is about defending Congress. It is about strengthening this institution and standing for the people who trust us to fight for them,” he said.
In a message to Congress last month, the president said he vetoed the pipeline bill because it “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.”
“Enough is enough. My administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies,” he wrote.
In his second veto message, Mr. Trump accused the Miccosukee Tribe of not following his immigration policies.
“But despite seeking funding and special treatment from the Federal Government, the Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected,” he wrote.
He argued that the Osceola Camp was created “without authorization” and “it is not the Federal Government’s responsibility to pay to fix problems in an area that the Tribe has never been authorized to occupy.”
Rep. Jared Huffman, California Democrat, said that after “reviewing the president’s statement regarding his veto, it’s very clear that this decision was not limited to the merits of the bill or to any particular policy.”
“Instead, his statement criticizes the tribe for actions taken to protect the Everglades — their homelands — from environmental risks. It even takes issue with the tribe’s opposition to his administration’s unpopular immigration policies,” he said on the House floor. “Moreover, this statement reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of tribal nations and the obligations that the United States has to those sovereign governments.”
