Colorado MAGA Rep. Lauren Boebert has taken a rare swipe at President Trump for using the first veto of his second term to reject a unanimously approved bill she co-sponsored to bring more water to rural communities in her home state.
The firebrand congresswoman expressed concern that Trump’s veto was motivated by “political retribution,” with some of the president’s critics citing a local 2020 alleged-election-fraud case that hasn’t gone to his liking and Boebert’s tough stance on the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“President Trump decided to veto a completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why?” Boebert vented in a statement Tuesday, the day 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 bill in question, the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, had cleared both the House and Senate unanimously.
It would have completed a pipeline project to bring clean drinking water to more than three dozen communities in the Eastern Plains of Colorado that are known to have groundwater with high levels of salt. There are also concerns about radioactivity in some of the wells there.
The AVC water pipeline was initially authorized under legislation that former President John F. Kennedy signed into law in 1962.
Trump contended that the pipeline went unbuilt for decades because it was “economically unviable” and underscored how originally, the project was supposed to be funded by the feds, then repaid by locals over the next five decades, “but participants were unable to comply with that.”
Former President Barack Obama signed legislation in 2009 to slash the repayment obligation to 35%, but construction didn’t start until 14 years later.
The bill Boebert backed would have given locals an additional 25 years to repay the federal government and cut the interest payment due in half.
“More than $249 million has already been spent on the AVC, and total costs are estimated to be $1.3 billion,” Trump noted in his veto message. “Enough is enough. My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies.”
Critics floated competing theories about how Trump may have had ulterior motives in issuing the veto.
Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Col.), who is running to be governor, alleged that the veto “is payback because Colorado won’t bend to his corruption.”
On Wednesday, Trump heaped praise on former Clerk and Recorder of Mesa County Tina Peters, who was convicted of charges involving a scheme to attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
While Trump attempted to pardon her Dec. 11, the move had no effect, as she was hit with state charges.
Trump called for Peters, who is serving out a nine-year sentence, to be freed Wednesday, fueling speculation that the issue may have underpinned his veto.
Boebert also resisted pressure from the White House last month and became one of four House Republicans who voted to force the lower chamber to consider the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“And I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability. Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics,” the congresswoman said in her statement blasting the president’s veto.
On X, she declared, “This isn’t over.”
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Col.), who helped lead the Senate version of the bill, called for Congress to override Trump’s veto.
Boebert’s digs at Trump come weeks after fellow MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had an epic falling out with the president.
Despite their similar brand of slash-and-dash politics, Boebert and Greene, who once reportedly got into a nasty bathroom spat, were often adversarial toward one another.
