The House will attempt to override President Trump’s vetoes of two GOP-backed bills Thursday, a move that could showcase GOP division.
Veto override votes are standard procedure, and a matter of high privilege in the House that forces the vote. A White House official said the votes do not indicate any disunity between the White House and the House GOP.
But lawmakers may be inclined to break with the White House, seeking to appease their constituents back home and bolster their reelection prospects.
It also sets up a loyalty test for congressional Republicans, who can use the vote to register their support for the president.
The two bills concern niche issues: one to fund a pipeline delivering clean water to southeastern Colorado, and another granting the Miccosukee Tribe authority to manage part of the Florida Everglades.
The bills were seen as so bipartisan and uncontroversial that they passed through Congress by voice, without a recorded vote. Both bills passed the House in July and the Senate in December.
But the issues intersect with Trump’s political grudges in the two states.
Trump has targeted Colorado over the prosecution of former Mesa County elections clerk Tina Peters, who aligned with Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Many observers see the veto as a form of political retribution.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who had introduced the pipeline bill, slammed Trump in a statement, saying she must have “missed the rally where he stood in Colorado and promised to personally derail critical water infrastructure projects.”
“But hey, if this administration wants to make its legacy blocking projects that deliver water to rural Americans; that’s on them,” she added. “I’m going to continue fighting for Colorado and standing up for our rural communities, our farmers, and every family that deserves safe, reliable drinking water without decades more delay.”
Trump in a statement cited the cost of the pipeline as his reasoning for vetoing the bill, arguing he is committed to preventing taxpayers from “funding expensive and unreliable policies.”
But Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.), who sits on the House Natural Resources Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee, told The Hill he doesn’t understand what the rationale was for the veto and added that he’s leaning toward overriding it.
“I understand the importance of the pipeline. We’re trying to sort out why the veto. We can’t figure out why the veto,” he said, noting he is going to review how much money is truly being spent on the project.
“My recollection is that it was an acceptable amount for many reasons,” he added.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) also said that Republicans will do their due diligence in reviewing both bills, adding that, “We’re not afraid to override a veto. We’re going to do what’s right by our districts.”
The Miccosukee Tribe, meanwhile, has clashed with the Trump administration over the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility in Florida. The tribe joined a lawsuit that argued authorities did not follow laws requiring environmental review before building the facility in the wetlands.
Trump said in his veto statement that the tribe has “actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies” the American people voted for.
“My Administration is committed to preventing 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,” he said.
Many Republicans are examining the issues for the first time, since neither of the bills initially passed with recorded votes.
Veto overrides are typically rarely successful, since they require a difficult two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate. There has been a total of 1,533 regular vetoes since 1789, and only 112 vetoes have been overridden, according to the U.S. Senate. There have also been 1,066 pocket vetoes since 1789, but those can’t be overridden.
Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) lamented the regularity with which the House passes bills under suspension of the rules, requiring either two-thirds support in a recorded vote or no objections on a voice vote.
“This is why we need regular order. This is why we need to have rule votes. This is why we need to have bills come to the floor of the House under a rule with amendments,” Self said.
The veto overrides give Republicans another opportunity to push back on the president.
In November, Boebert and three other Republicans broke with Trump and GOP leaders to join all Democrats on a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill directing the Justice Department to release materials related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability,” Boebert said in her statement. “Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics.”
And in December, four Republicans endorsed a Democratic discharge petition to force a vote on a bill to extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies for three years.
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