President Donald J. Trump vetoed H.R. 131, the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, returning the bill to the House of Representatives without approval, according to a White House statement dated December 29.
The legislation would have altered federal repayment terms for the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC), a long-delayed water pipeline project intended to supply municipal and industrial water to communities in southeastern Colorado. The AVC was originally authorized in 1962 as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, signed into law by President John F. Kennedy.
In his veto message, Trump said the project had long been economically unviable and argued that successive changes to its financing structure had shifted an increasing share of the costs onto federal taxpayers.
Under the original authorization, the AVC was to be funded initially by the federal government but fully repaid by local users, with interest, over a 50-year period following construction. However, according to the White House, project participants were unable to meet those repayment obligations.
Congress later revised the funding model. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which reduced the local repayment requirement from 100 percent to 35 percent and allowed miscellaneous revenues from the broader Fryingpan-Arkansas Project to count toward the AVC’s cost share. Even with those changes, construction did not begin until 2023, after Colorado authorized $100 million in state loans and grants.
The vetoed bill would have extended the repayment period by an additional 25 years, creating a 75-year repayment timeline, and would have cut the interest rate on the remaining repayment obligation in half.
According to the White House, more than $249 million has already been spent on the Arkansas Valley Conduit, with total projected costs estimated at $1.3 billion.
Trump said the bill would “continue the failed policies of the past” by requiring federal taxpayers to absorb an even greater portion of the costs for what he described as a local water project.
“Enough is enough,” Trump wrote. “My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies.”
The President concluded that restoring fiscal discipline and limiting taxpayer-funded subsidies was essential to the nation’s long-term economic health, stating that he could not support the legislation and was therefore returning it to Congress without approval.
