The House failed to override two of President Donald Trump's vetoes Thursday, leaving in place his rejection of two bills that would have supported a Colorado water pipeline and a Florida flood control project, despite both measures passing Congress unanimously last month.
The vote to reverse his veto of the Colorado water project got 248 votes, well short of the 285 vote, two-thirds majority, needed to override it.
All 213 Democrats were joined by just 35 Republicans in voting to override the veto.
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 the move by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., to force the release of the government's files on the convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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.
"I will continue to fight for Western water," Boebert, who championed the project, said after the vote.
"This was a commitment made by President Trump in 2020, and I will continue to fulfill that commitment," Boebert added.
Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, is serving nine years in prison after being convicted on state charges of 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.
Trump said he vetoed the bill to prevent taxpayers from funding "expensive and unreliable policies."
The House voted 236-188, with 24 Republicans joining 212 Democrats, to uphold the president's veto of legislation that would spend $14 million to protect an area known as Osceola Camp in Everglades National Park that is inhabited by members of the Miccosukee tribe of Native Americans.
The veto came after the tribe 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.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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