U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert delivers a victory speech about 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 (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to uphold two of President Donald Trump’s vetoes of non-controversial measures that had the support of members of both parties.
Several Republicans voted with Democrats to override the vetoes, giving both measures majorities that were still below the required two-thirds.
Just before New Year’s Day, Trump vetoed two bills that Congress passed last year without opposition in either chamber. They were the first vetoes of his second term.
A bill would reduce interest payments Coloradans in the Arkansas River Valley must pay to build a water pipeline to Pueblo communities. The majority vote for this bill failed 248-177.
The other would require the Interior Department to protect buildings at Osceola Camp in Florida from flooding. This vote failed 236-188.
Trump said both would be too costly for federal taxpayers.
Colorado members call for an override
The Colorado bill’s sponsor in the House, Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert, urged her colleagues to override the veto in a speech Thursday.
“Contrary to what the veto message says, my bill does not provide for additional federal funding,” Boebert said Thursday. “It simply changes the repayment terms for small rural communities in my district so that they can afford their 35 percent cost share of the project that they are legally 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 White House’s Dec. 29 veto message said the measure “would continue the failed policies of the past by forcing federal taxpayers to bear even more of the enormous costs of a local water project – a local water project that, as originally planned, would be paid for by the communities that use it.”
Members demand political retribution
Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, supported Boebert’s argument but added harsher language against Trump’s veto.
“This bill will cost taxpayers virtually nothing, as previously stated, and it fulfills 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 the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Jared Huffman of California, all said the vetoes were part of the White House’s political vendetta, but offered no additional context.
“No one voted against this bill,” Wasserman Schultz said. “This bill is completely uncontroversial and so narrowly drafted that it makes absolutely no sense, apart from the interest in revenge that appears to have been reflected in this outcome.”
Trump avoids further rebuke
The afternoon vote is likely to be the second rejection of Trump by Congress on Thursday, after five Senate Republicans joined Democrats Advance payment a measure to curb the government’s military activities in Venezuela.
House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican, said he supported maintaining the veto because he trusts the administration.
“I respect the administration’s views on this legislation and its commitment to fiscal responsibility,” Westerman said of Colorado’s bill. He made a similar statement about the Florida law.
- 6:03 p.mThe vote totals for the two bills mentioned in this report have been corrected.
