Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., struck back at President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening after he vetoed a bill that would have lowered payments for a water project in her district — an act Boebert believes could be political retribution.
“President Trump decided to veto a completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why? Because nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado many of whom enthusiastically voted for him all three elections,” Boebert said in a statement posted by journalist Kyle Clarke.
Boebert raised the possibility that the veto was retaliation for her vote to release the Epstein files earlier this year.
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“I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics,” Boebert said.
On that vote, Boebert joined Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Nancy Mace, R-N.C., Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and the chamber’s Democrats to force the Epstein Files Transparency Act to the floor for a vote — over the wishes of House leadership and the administration.
Despite initial opposition to the bill, Trump signed the bill into law after it cleared both chambers of Congress with little opposition once Boebert helped unlock its consideration.
Boebert’s break with the Trump veto marks another notable schism between Trump and some of his most loyal allies in the House of Representatives.
Her comments over the veto follow Marjorie Taylor Green’s criticisms of President Trump and what Greene sees as a departure from the campaign promises that were made on the road to the 2024 presidential election.
Greene, formerly one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, has made plans to leave Congress early, citing disagreements with the trajectory of the party. She will resign on Jan. 5, 2026.
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Boebert has also been a vocal Trump ally in her own right but did not mince words in her displeasure over the veto.
“I must have missed the rally where he stood in Colorado and promised to personally derail critical water infrastructure projects. My bad, I thought the campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape,” Boebert said.
“But hey, if this administration wants to make its legacy blocking water projects that deliver water to rural Americans; that’s on them,” she added.
The bill vetoed by Trump, the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, would have removed interest payments required by the Bureau of Reclamation for the construction of a Colorado pipeline delivering water from the Pueblo Reserve. It would have also extended the repayment period for the project to 100 years.
As noted by Boebert, the bill passed without objection in the House of Representatives in a unanimous voice vote back in July.
In its own statement on the matter, the White House said it had vetoed the bill because it would force the federal government to pick up more of the bill for a state and local project authorized by previous administrations.
According to the White House, the water project was originally made possible by the Omnibus Public Land Management Act passed by President Barack Obama in 2009.
“More than $249 million has already been spent on the [pipeline] and total costs are estimated to be $1.3 billion,” the White House wrote.
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“H.R. 131 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 White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the decision had anything to do with Boebert’s vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
