{"id":14193,"date":"2025-12-31T16:32:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T23:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-vetoes-bipartisan-bill-to-fund-clean-water-pipeline-in-southeastern-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:33:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:33:03","slug":"trump-vetoes-bipartisan-bill-to-fund-clean-water-pipeline-in-southeastern-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-vetoes-bipartisan-bill-to-fund-clean-water-pipeline-in-southeastern-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump vetoes bipartisan bill to fund clean water pipeline in southeastern Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Contractors
Contractors install the Arkansas Valley Conduit east of Pueblo. (Photo courtesy of Chris Woodka with Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A plan to help local communities pay their share of the long-sought Arkansas River Valley conduit passed Congress with strong bipartisan support but fell one signature short of becoming law.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump on Monday vetoed the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act despite its sponsorship by fellow Republicans and the significant benefits it would provide to southeastern Colorado, where his support runs deep. The conduit, which broke ground in 2023, is intended to provide clean water for farming, factories and households. The bill would have given local communities 100 years to repay interest-free federal loans for their share of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough is enough,\u201d Trump said in a veto message to Congress. \u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how everyone sees it.<\/p>\n

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost the federal government less than $500,000. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation calls the conduit a \u201cmajor infrastructure project that, upon completion, will provide reliable municipal and industrial water to 39 communities in southeast Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a frivolous project,\u201d Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District Senior Policy and Issues Manager Chris Woodka said. \u201cIt\u2019s a project that meets federally mandated standards for water quality to ensure that 50,000 people are drinking clean, not carcinogenic, water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodka said the water district is working with the congressional delegation to figure out next steps and will not give up on the project.<\/p>\n

The bill passed via voice vote in the House and unanimous consent in the Senate. That level of support for the project would seem to make the veto ripe for an override, but that would require testing the will of Republican leaders in both chambers to allow a vote and take on their party\u2019s leader. Such a challenge to Trump is no sure thing.<\/p>\n

Legislation authorizing and funding completion of the project is perhaps the most impactful bill sponsored by Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert during her time in Congress. And while she didn\u2019t raise the specter of a veto override, she nonetheless expressed her displeasure with the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump decided to veto a completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously,\u201d Boebert said in a prepared statement. \u201cIf this administration wants to make its legacy blocking projects that deliver water to rural Americans, that\u2019s on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert also questioned the president\u2019s motives for the veto, suggesting it might be retribution because she helped ensure a vote on releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability,\u201d Boebert said. \u201cAmericans deserve leadership that puts people over politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd was a cosponsor of the House version of the bill, while Democratic U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper introduced it in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Colorado\u2019s delegation were also quick to label the veto an act of reprisal, with Bennet posting on X: \u201cThis isn\u2019t governing. It\u2019s a revenge tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper added on X that \u201cCongress should swiftly overturn this veto.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project has been on the drawing board since the 1960s. It was designed to eventually stop groundwater withdrawals in the area, which can produce water tainted with radioactivity.<\/p>\n

The 130-mile conduit would bring water from Pueblo Reservoir to Bent, Kiowa, Crowley, Otero, Prowers and Pueblo counties. The original legislation required the state and communities to fund 100 percent of the cost, but President Barack Obama and Congress opened the door to federal funding in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vetoed legislation did not authorize new construction spending or expand the federal government\u2019s original commitment,\u201d Hurd said in his statement about the veto. \u201cMore than $200 million has already been invested, alongside significant state and local contributions. Further delay risks stranding taxpayer dollars and leaving communities without a viable path to meeting drinking water standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groundbreaking on part of the project actually took place in 2023, but it was always known that federal funding would be needed to complete the entire conduit.<\/p>\n

CPR\u2019s Caitlyn Kim and KRCC\u2019s Shanna Lewis contributed to this story. <\/em><\/p>\n

This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit\u2019 act was supposed to help rural communities on the Eastern Plains pay for their share of the long-delayed pipeline <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19378,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14193\/revisions\/19378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14193"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}