Trump vetoes bill to fund Arkansas Valley Conduit in Colorado
December 30, 2025
DENVER — President Donald Trump is using his first veto of his current term to kill funding for a major drinking water project in Colorado.
The Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) Act passed unanimously in the House and Senate.
Monday’s veto comes after Trump promised retaliation against Colorado for keeping his ally Tina Peters in prison. Peters was convicted on state charges for a scheme to tamper with voting systems in a search for election rigging in the 2020 presidential race.
Trump is killing the bill to finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities on the Eastern Plains between Pueblo and Lamar. The groundwater there is high in salt, and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply.