WASHINGTON — An effort to override President Trump’s vetoes of bipartisan bills that cleared Congress last month fell flat Thursday.
Lawmakers voted 236-188 to override Trump’s veto of the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, falling short of the needed two-thirds majority threshold, sparing the president of embarrassment in the GOP-led Congress.
The House also voted 248-177 to undo Trump’s veto of the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, which had been a priority of Colorado lawmakers, but also didn’t have enough votes.
Last month, Trump issued the first vetoes of his second term, spiking both those projects that cleared the two chambers of Congress unanimously.
The Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act gives parts of Florida’s Everglades to that tribe. Notably, the Miccosukee tribe backed a lawsuit last year challenging Trump’s plan to establish an “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center.
“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,” Trump’s veto message said.
The Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act would have completed a pipeline project to bring clean drinking water to rural communities in the Eastern Plains of Colorado.
Those communities are known to have groundwater with high levels of salt, and there have been concerns about radioactivity in some of the wells there.
The Arkansas Valley Conduit project has been in the works for decades and was initially authorized under legislation that President John F. Kennedy signed into law in 1962 to federally fund the project and then have locals pay back Uncle Sam over time.
But the project has long been bogged down by financial and logistical issues. Former President Barack Obama backed legislation in 2009 to cut the repayment obligation to 35%.
The bipartisan measure championed by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) would’ve given locals an additional 25 years to repay Uncle Sam and halve the interest payment due.
Trump cited concerns that the project was “economically unviable” and knocked the local governments involved for being “unable to comply” with the repayment requirements.
Critics, such as Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Col.) and Michael Bennet (D-Col.), speculated that Trump’s veto was fueled by a motivation to get revenge on Colorado officials.
Around the time of his veto, Trump commended former Clerk and Recorder of Mesa County Tina Peters, who was convicted of charges involving a scheme to attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
The veto drew the wrath of Boebert, a staunch Trump ally who rarely crosses the president.
“President Trump decided to veto a completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why?” Boebert raged after the veto.
“I must have missed the rally where he stood in Colorado and promised to personally derail critical water infrastructure projects. My bad, I thought the campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape.”
The last successful override of a presidential veto was five years ago, during the very end of Trump’s first term in office, when Congress quashed his bid to reject a National Defense Authorization Act.
