The House of Representatives upheld President Donald Trump’s vetoes of two GOP-authored bills Thursday afternoon, despite dozens of Republicans defying the president.
The majority of House Republicans opposed overriding Trump’s vetoes, though several dozen GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in support of both measures. Trump issued the first two vetoes of his term in late December blocking legislation that would complete a long-planned water infrastructure project in southeastern Colorado (H.R. 131) and another allowing the Miccosukee Tribe to expand its land possessions in the Florida Everglades (H.R. 504). Both bills were seen as uncontroversial and sailed through Congress without any member requesting a recorded vote.
Each of the bills failed to clear a two-thirds majority to pass the lower chamber. The votes were standard procedure after the president’s veto messages were transmitted to Congress.
The vote to override Trump’s veto of the Colorado water pipeline bill, sponsored by Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert among other lawmakers, came up short in a vote of 248 to 177. Just 35 GOP lawmakers voted in favor and Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running in a crowded gubernatorial primary, voted present.
A vote to overrule Trump’s veto of the tribal lands bill also failed 236 to 188. Twenty-four Republicans, including the resolution’s sponsors, Florida Reps. Carlos Gimenez, Mario Díaz-Balart and Maria Elvira Salazar, supported the veto override.
Every Democrat who voted supported both overrides.
Trump argued Boebert’s legislation wastes taxpayer dollars in a message to Congress explaining his veto.
“Enough is enough. My administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies,” Trump wrote in a statement announcing his veto.
Boebert, a longtime Trump supporter, fired back that the president’s veto of her bill would harm his voters in her eastern Colorado district. The Arkansas Valley Conduit, first proposed under former President John F. Kennedy, seeks to bring fresh water to the southeastern corner of the state.
Boebert, who recently crossed Trump over the Epstein files, also questioned whether the president’s veto could be retaliation for joining with Democrats to trigger a vote on releasing documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Colorado congresswoman said she hoped “this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability,” Boebert said in a statement to Denver-based outlet 9News. “Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics.”
Trump has notably clashed with Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis over former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is serving a nine-year sentence in prison after being convicted for tampering with the 2020 election. Trump granted Peters a symbolic pardon, but has little power to release her because she was convicted in state court. The president has also criticized the Miccosukee Tribe for opposing the creation of the migrant detention center, known as Alligator Alcatraz, in the Everglades.
The White House argued the votes are not indicative of Republican disunity.
“Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers — an outcome that will not happen,” a White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “The President has been clear on his position on this issue, and Republicans are aligned as we move forward.”
Trump urged Republicans Tuesday to unite ahead of November’s midterm elections in a speech at the Trump-Kennedy Center. On Thursday afternoon, he called on five GOP senators who voted to restrict his authority on using military force in Venezuela to lose reelection.
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