Trump vetoes bill to finish $1.3 billion Colorado water pipeline
(UI) — President Donald J. Trump has vetoed legislation that would have revised federal repayment terms for the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a long-delayed water pipeline project in southeastern Colorado, citing rising costs and increased burden on federal taxpayers.
In a veto message dated Dec. 30, Trump said he was returning H.R. 131, the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, to the House of Representatives without approval.
“The Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) is a water pipeline currently being built to provide municipal and industrial water to communities in southeastern Colorado,” Trump wrote. The project was originally authorized in 1962 as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project but remained unbuilt for decades because it was “economically unviable.”
Under the original framework, construction costs were to be funded upfront by the federal government and repaid by local users with interest over a 50-year period. Trump wrote that project participants were unable to meet those repayment obligations.
Congress later revised the funding structure through the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, reducing the repayment requirement from 100% to 35% and allowing revenues from the broader Fryingpan-Arkansas Project to count toward AVC costs. Even with those changes, Trump noted, construction did not begin until 2023 after Colorado authorized $100 million in state loans and grants.
The vetoed bill would have further extended repayment terms by an additional 25 years — creating a 75-year repayment period — while also cutting the interest rate in half.
“More than $249 million has already been spent on the AVC, and total costs are estimated to be $1.3 billion,” Trump wrote. He said 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.”
“Enough is enough,” Trump wrote. “My 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.”
Trump concluded that he could not support the bill and formally returned it to the House without approval.
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