XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics   
   From: super70s@super70s.invalid   
      
   Trump issues his first vetoes of this term   
   By Joe Walsh   
   CBS News   
   Tue, December 30, 2025 at 11:26 PM CST   
      
   President Trump used his veto power this week for the first time since   
   returning to the White House, rejecting a pair of bipartisan bills   
   designed to make it easier to build a water pipeline in Colorado and   
   give a Native American tribe more control over a portion of the   
   Everglades.   
      
   Mr. Trump vetoed the two bills on Monday, the White House announced on   
   X, after they were sent to his desk earlier this month. The bills had   
   backers in both parties, and they passed the House and Senate through   
   voice votes. Both houses of Congress would need to pass the bills again   
   by a two-thirds margin to override the president's veto.   
      
   It's fairly rare for the president to exercise his veto power,   
   especially when the president's party controls Congress. Mr. Trump   
   vetoed 10 bills in his first term, all during his last two years in   
   office, and former President Joe Biden used the veto power 13 times   
   while in office.   
      
   One of the bills -- the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act --   
   would have added a small village called the Osceola Camp to a section   
   of the Florida Everglades that the Miccosukee Native American Tribe has   
   control over. It would also require the Department of the Interior to   
   take action to protect structures in the village from flooding.   
      
   The bill was backed by Florida Republican Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley   
   Moody, and by GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez and Democratic Rep. Darren Soto.   
   Shortly before it passed the House in July, Gimenez said the bill was   
   "about fairness and conservation."   
      
   "It ensures the Miccosukee Tribe has the autonomy to protect their   
   homes, land and their way of life," Gimenez said in a speech on the   
   House floor.   
      
   But in a message to Congress on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the project   
   benefits "special interests" -- and accused the tribe of not   
   cooperating with his immigration policies.   
      
   He wrote that "despite seeking funding and special treatment from the   
   Federal Government, the Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to   
   obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people   
   decisively voted for when I was elected."   
      
   Earlier this year, the tribe joined a lawsuit challenging an   
   immigration detention center in the Everglades that state and federal   
   officials refer to as "Alligator Alcatraz." The tribe has argued the   
   facility could hurt the surrounding environment, impacting the tribe's   
   ability to hunt and hold ceremonies on the land.   
      
   The president also argued that the Osceola Camp was originally created   
   without authorization, writing, "it is not the Federal Government's   
   responsibility to pay to fix problems in an area that the Tribe has   
   never been authorized to occupy."   
      
   CBS News has reached out to the tribe for comment.   
      
   The other piece of legislation that faced a presidential veto this week   
   was the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act. That bill was aimed at   
   completing a long-planned water pipeline that could serve some 50,000   
   people in southeastern Colorado.   
      
   The pipeline was first proposed during President John F. Kennedy's   
   administration, part of a series of water projects in Colorado. But it   
   was never built, in part because federal law required local communities   
   to pay for it, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. A 2009 law   
   changed the funding breakdown and allowed local governments to pick up   
   only 35% of the tab. The bill that was passed this year would have   
   reduced those local entities' interest payments and given them more   
   time to repay the costs.   
      
   Mr. Trump said he vetoed the bill as part of a broader push to cut   
   "taxpayer handouts." He pointed to the pipeline's expected price tag --   
   the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation estimated in 2023 it would cost about   
   $1.4 billion, double the projected price seven years earlier.   
      
   The president argued the legislation "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."   
      
   The bill was backed by the state's two Democratic senators and by   
   Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert and Jeff Hurd, whose districts include   
   areas that would be served by the pipeline.   
      
   Boebert told CBS News in a statement the veto was "very disappointing,"   
   writing: "This fight is not over."   
      
   Boebert castigated the veto in a separate statement to local reporter   
   Kyle Clark, calling the bill "completely non-controversial" and saying   
   she hopes Mr. Trump's veto "has nothing to do with political   
   retaliation."   
      
   "I must have missed the rally where he stood in Colorado and promised   
   to personally derail critical water infrastructure projects," Boebert   
   wrote. "My bad, I thought the campaign was about lowering costs and   
   cutting red tape."   
      
   Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado also strongly criticized   
   the president's decision, writing on X: "Donald Trump is playing   
   partisan games and punishing Colorado by making rural communities   
   suffer without clean drinking water."   
      
   Fellow Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet accused the president of   
   seeking "revenge."   
      
   Boebert drew attention earlier this year by breaking with Mr. Trump and   
   signing a petition to force a House vote on a bill to release files on   
   Jeffrey Epstein. The bill ultimately passed by nearly unanimous margins   
   after Mr. Trump endorsed it.   
      
   Mr. Trump has also lashed out at Colorado officials over the case of   
   Tina Peters, a former GOP county election official who was convicted   
   and sentenced to a multiyear prison sentence for tampering with voting   
   machines. He said in August he would take "harsh measures" if she isn't   
   released from custody.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)