The U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 8, 2025.
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The first vetoes of President Donald Trump’s second term survived separate override votes by the House of Representatives on Thursday.
The outcome was a surprise, since both bills that Trump had vetoed were passed in unanimous voice votes by the House and Senate. The bills supported infrastructure in Colorado and Florida.
The override vote on the Colorado bill veto failed 248-177, with one member voting present. The Florida override measure failed 236-188.
Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. By rule, if a vote to override a veto fails in the House, no vote is required in the Senate, and the veto remains in effect.
The votes came hours after Trump was rebuked by a vote in the Senate, which advanced a bill to curtail his ability to use the U.S. military in Venezuela.
Trump’s veto of the Colorado bill infuriated some Republican lawmakers from the state, including the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Lauren Boebert, who until the latter half of 2025 had been a close Trump ally.
The bill, the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, sought to reduce the payments local communities must make for the construction of a pipeline set to provide clean drinking water to rural communities in Colorado.
“Time after time in that chamber, I am disappointed to see the lack of leadership,” Boebert told reporters after the override vote.
“This had nothing to do with policy … folks are afraid of getting a mean tweet or attacked,” she said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., arrives to the U.S. Capitol for the last vote of the week on Friday, November 15, 2024.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Another co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Colo., before the vote had said that overriding Trump’s veto would reassert the authority of Congress.
Trump’s veto “should give every member pause,” Hurd said. “My constituents are watching, and your constituents are watching.”
In a message to Congress, Trump said he vetoed the Colorado bill because it would “continue the failed policies of the past by forcing Federal taxpayers to bear even more of the massive costs of a local water project — a local water project that, as initially conceived, was supposed to be paid for by the localities using it.”
The Florida bill that Trump vetoed would have transferred a tract of land known as the Osceola Camp in the Everglades National Park to the reserved area for the Miccosukee Tribe. The bill also would have required the Interior Department to help flood-proof structures in the area.
Trump said he vetoed the bill in part to prevent “American taxpayers from funding projects for special interests, especially those that are unaligned with my Administration’s policy of removing violent criminal illegal aliens from the country.”
Trump was accused of vetoing both bills for political reasons.
The Miccosukee Tribe was one of the groups that sued the Trump administration over its construction of “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention center set up to house migrants.
The facility has since been shut down.
Boebert was one of the few Republicans who bucked Trump and joined Democrats in the successful effort to compel the Department of Justice to release files related to the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Boebert resisted intense pressure from the White House to back down from that effort.
Trump has also vowed retribution against Colorado for its refusal to release Tina Peters, a former county clerk who last year was convicted of crimes related to tampering with voting machines.
Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, in an interview on Wednesday night, said, “I support the president, so I’m not going to vote to override him.”
— CNBC’s Justin Papp contributed to this report.
