Trump issues first second-term vetoes for Colorado water project and Florida tribal measure

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a major drinking water project in Colorado, drawing immediate condemnation from Colorado Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert, a former loyal MAGA ally who also recently challenged Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The White House announced Trump’s veto of the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) Act, which was approved unanimously by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and a second measure affecting a Florida project, late on Tuesday. They were the first two vetoes of Trump’s second term.

The veto of the Colorado project came after Trump’s vow to retaliate against the state for keeping his ally Tina Peters in prison, despite his attempt to pardon her earlier in the month, and Boebert’s action to force the release of the government’s files on the late convicted sexual offender Epstein.

Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted on state charges for illegally tampering with voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s pardon covers only federal charges and the state has refused to release Peters.

Boebert, who sponsored the bill, condemned Trump’s veto of what she called a “completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill” in a statement on X, adding her hope is that “this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability.”

The bill was aimed at funding a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado’s Eastern Plains, where the groundwater is high in salt, and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply.

In his letter to Congress, Trump said he vetoed the measure to prevent “American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies.”

It was not immediately clear if the Republican leaders in Congress would allow a vote to override Trump’s veto.

Boebert was one of four Republican lawmakers, along with Marjorie Taylor Greene, who played a key role in forcing the release of Justice Department files on Epstein. Trump had fought the release of the files for months before ending his opposition.

The White House said Trump had also vetoed a measure to spend $14 million to protect an area known as Osceola Camp within the Everglades National Park that is inhabited by members of the Miccosukee tribe of Native Americans, which has fought Trump’s makeshift immigrant detention center “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades. A federal judge has now ordered the detention center to be shut down.

Trump said the tribe was never authorized to inhabit the Osceola Camp area, and his administration would not support projects for special interests, especially those “unaligned” with his immigration policies.    

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Lincoln Feast.)