President Donald Trump vetoed the legislation for the first time since returning to the White House almost a year ago, setting up a potential standoff with US lawmakers.
The two bills he vetoed passed Congress with bipartisan support, meaning lawmakers could muster enough votes to defeat him in the new year.
Trump ally and prominent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert sponsored one of the bills that aimed to reduce the amount that communities in her home state of Colorado pay for new water pipes.
Another bill would support a flood mitigation project for a Florida Indian tribe that has sued to stop construction of the Alcatraz Alligator.
In his State of the Union address, Trump called Colorado's plan economically unviable.
“Enough. “My administration is committed to stopping American taxpayers from funding costly and unsustainable policies,” Trump said.
He added that the bill would hurt payments to the federal government for a pipeline that would bring fresh water to the eastern part of the state.
Boebert, one of the few conservative lawmakers who broke with Trump and pushed for the Epstein files to be released this winter, responded to the veto with a post on X, writing, “This is not the end.”
“I sincerely hope that this veto has nothing to do with political retribution,” she then said in a statement.
Trump has also sparred with Colorado political leaders over the jailing of Tina Peters, a 73-year-old county clerk who repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and has been convicted by both the state and the U.S. government of election security violations.
Trump, who pardoned Peters on federal charges this month, has called on Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to release her.
Polis said it was up to the courts to decide her case, a rallying cry for Trump's “Make America Great Again” wing of the Republican Party.
“Free Tina Peters!” On Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social about Colorado officials: “I wish them nothing but the worst. Let them rot in hell.”
The second bill he vetoed, the Miccosukee Wilderness Act, would have required the Interior Department to help a Florida tribe prevent flooding in a part of their community that has vulnerable infrastructure.
In his veto message, Trump wrote that Mikosukee had conducted “unauthorized” development on the land in question.
The White House also said the tribe “actively sought to obstruct the sound immigration policies that the American people voted decisively for when I was elected.”
The Miccosukee tribe is suing the Trump administration's construction of an immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Gator Alcatraz.”
In court documents, the tribe argued that construction of the facility had unique impacts on it and that its construction posed an environmental risk.
