Donald Trump issued the first two vetoes of his second term on 29 December 2025. The U.S. president specifically overruled two bipartisan bills. These were the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act and the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act.
Trump Vetoed Two Bills
The Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act
The bill came from the 119th U.S. Congress. It aimed to ease the financial burden on communities in southeastern Colorado for the construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit. It was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on 3 January 2025, and the Senate passed it without amendment and with unanimous support on 17 December 2025.
Note that the conduit project involved completing a water pipeline in southeastern Colorado designed to provide clean drinking water to about 50000 people across 39 rural communities. It was first proposed during the John F. Kennedy administration but remained unfinished for decades due to funding disputes between federal and local governments.
Trump vetoed the 2025 bill. He cited the high cost of the project, which was about 4.5 billion U.S. dollars, and labeled it a taxpayer handout. He further argued that federal taxpayers should not bear the burden of a local water project. Some critics characterized the veto as political revenge since Colorado has been at odds with the administration.
The Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act
The U.S. Congress passed the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act in 1988. It was intended to authorize the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida to permanently occupy a certain area within Everglades National Park. The reserved area did not include the Osceola Camp. An amendment was proposed in the 119th U.S. Congress to expand the reserved area.
Note that the specific Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act would have added a residential area called Osceola Camp to the official lands of the Miccosukee Tribe in the Florida Everglades. It would have also required the U.S. Department of the Interior to fund and provide flood protection infrastructure to the structure of the tribal village.
Trump vetoed the bill and explicitly tied his decision to an immigration dispute. He accused the Miccosukee Tribe of obstructing his immigration policies. It should be recalled that the tribe had joined a lawsuit to block a proposed immigration detention facility, which some officials nicknamed the Alligator Alcatraz, in the Everglades.
Possible Congress Override
Both the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act and the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act were originally passed by unanimous votes. Both were supported by Republican lawmakers. Hence, because the two had garnered bipartisan support, there is speculation about whether the U.S. Congress will attempt to override the vetoes.
An override requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate. The legal basis for this maneuver is found in Article I, Section 7, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution. It is designed as an added mechanism for the checks and balances system to ensure that the president cannot block the will of a significant majority of the legislature.
But overriding a veto is intentionally difficult. Data from the National Archives show that only 7 percent of regular presidential vetoes have ever been successfully overridden in U.S. history. Even if the bills were supported by Republicans, now that Trump expressed his objections, members of his party may feel pressured to sustain the vetoes.