US President Donald Trump used his veto power for the first time in his second term this week. He rejected bills to build a water supply system and expand the reservation for indigenous people. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
The White House announced on social media that Trump had vetoed bills supported by both Democrats and Republicans on Monday. To override the president, the Senate and the House of Representatives must now approve these bills by a two-thirds majority.
Titled the “Arkansas Valley Water Supply Project Completion Act,” the bill aimed to implement a decades-long plan to provide clean water to the Eastern Colorado Plains.
The reason was finances
In his letter to Congress explaining the veto, Trump said construction would be too expensive. The veto, in its own words, protects the American taxpayer from financing “expensive and frivolous measures.”
The construction of this water main was originally proposed in the 1960s during the administration of President John F. Kennedy. The legislative proposal, which Trump later vetoed, was unanimously supported by Congress, with the support of both of Colorado’s Democratic senators and a pair of Republican representatives in the House of Representatives – Lauren Boebert and Jeff Hurd.
Boebert wrote on social media after Trump’s sentence: “This is not the end.” AFP recalls that Boebert is one of four Republican lawmakers who called on the Justice Department to release all documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He threatens Colorado
Trump also recently threatened “tough action” against Colorado officials over jailed Republican election official Tina Peters, who he wanted to grant a presidential pardon. Peters was convicted in Colorado in October 2024 of allowing a supporter of the Republican president to access classified election information. AFP reports that Peters is not eligible for a pardon.
The second bill that Trump vetoed is called the “Miccosukee Reservation Amendment Act.” His goal was to expand the territory of the Miccosukee tribe in a section of Florida’s Everglades National Park called Osceola Camp. The tribe joined plaintiffs this year in the government’s planned migrant detention center in the Everglades, known as the “Alcatraz of the Alligators.” A federal judge then ordered most of the facility to be dismantled, rendering the facility inoperable.
Trump said the tribe is not entitled to occupy Osceola Camp and his administration will not allow taxpayer money to be spent on “special interest projects,” especially for groups opposed to his immigration policies. AFP notes that presidents use the veto only rarely. During his first term, Trump vetoed ten bills. His successor and predecessor in office, Joe Biden, vetoed 13 bills during his four-year term.
