“Enough is enough”: Trump betrays Florida and Colorado, vetoes two bills in a clear political revenge
Florida – President Donald Trump has used his first vetoes of his second term to block two bipartisan bills that weren’t widely recognized but had a lot of support. These bills had already passed through Congress with no votes against them.
The decisions put a stop to projects that were meant to fix long-standing infrastructure problems in Colorado and Florida. This left local politicians and residents with even more uncertainty.
Both H.R. 131 and H.R. 504 passed through the legislative process without a lot of attention. Neither caused conflicts on the floor or clashes between parties. Instead, they showed rare times when Republicans and Democrats agreed on something and focused on specific adjustments instead than big changes to policy. But that agreement didn’t make it to the White House.
Trump’s veto statement for H.R. 131 said that he was doing it to fight what he called “excessive federal spending.”
“Enough is enough,” Trump wrote. “My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies… Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation,” according to a statement issued by The White House.
H.R. 131, also called the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, was meant to make it easier for communities in southeastern Colorado that are working on a federal water pipeline project that has been going on for decades to pay back their loans. Local leaders have been warning for a long time that escalating expenses could make it too expensive for smaller, rural areas to join, which could cut them off from clean, reliable drinking water.
Officials in Colorado seemed very angry. Representative Joe Neguse said that the president was purposely going after the state and that the veto was more about politics than good money management. He said that the measure was written by Republican Representative Lauren Boebert and Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, which showed that it was nonpartisan from the start.
Bennet agreed with that characterization and said that the veto seemed personal. He said that everyone in the House voted for the law and that its only goal was to get safe water to rural communities. In his view, blocking the legislation sent a message that even broad agreement in Congress offers no guarantee of success if a state has fallen out of favor with the administration.
Back from holiday break, Trump’s first move: veto a unanimous, bipartisan bill to deliver clean drinking water to rural Colorado.
This is payback because Colorado won’t bend to his corruption. It’s weak, it’s dangerous, and it’s unamerican. https://t.co/EiBNgXyMnR
— Michael Bennet (@MichaelBennet) December 31, 2025
The second veto, which was against H.R. 504, had an effect on South Florida. The bill would have given the Miccosukee Tribe more land and told the Department of the Interior to work with tribe officials to stop flooding. Heavy storms have caused the area to flood several times, and this problem has gotten worse as rainstorms have gotten more intense.
Trump’s justification for rejecting that bill was more clearly political. He said that the Miccosukee Tribe was against federal immigration policy and that a group asking for federal help shouldn’t, in his opinion, block programs that voters support. The argument was different from what the legislation indicated it was meant to do, which was to manage land and keep the public safe, not to enforce immigration laws.
Leaders in Congress have said that it is conceivable to vote to overturn a veto. To do this, both the House and the Senate would need to have a two-thirds majority, which is a high bar even for laws that passed without any opposition. It is yet uncertain if lawmakers will try to override the decision, especially since there are already a lot of other important things on the legislative schedule.
The vetoes come at a time when tensions are rising between the Trump administration and Colorado politicians. The president has often attacked Democratic Governor Jared Polis, notably after the state convicted former county clerk Tina Peters of interfering with the election. Trump recently gave Peters a federal pardon. The White House says the vetoes are not retaliatory, but the timing has many people in the state doubt that.
For those waiting for help, the immediate effect is more practical than political. The water infrastructure in southeastern Colorado is still not built, and flood-prone towns in South Florida will have to go through another storm season without any new federal help.
