Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act--Veto Message From the President of the United States

Floor Speech

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Ms. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of our House Natural Resources Committee and the ranking member of our committee for all the work that has been put in on this legislation. I also thank my colleagues in the Senate for their work on this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of today's veto override to ensure my bill, H.R. 131, becomes law.

In December of last year, this commonsense, bipartisan, and bicameral bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that my bill will not result in a measurable increase to Federal spending.

H.R. 131, the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, will help small rural communities in southeast Colorado finally complete a Federal water project that was authorized in 1962 under the Kennedy administration.

Radium, uranium, and other naturally occurring elements are found in the surface and groundwater of southeastern Colorado, and the water quality is problematic year-round because of its salinity, selenium, sulfate, hardness, and manganese levels.

The Bureau of Reclamation has found that these contamination levels are so severe that local communities could see the costs of their drinking water triple without this legislation.

Contrary to what the veto message states, my bill does not authorize any additional Federal funding. It simply modifies the repayment terms for small rural communities in my district so they are able to afford their 35 percent cost share of the project that they are statutorily obligated to repay.

After the project broke ground, inflation took place. Costs doubled under the previous administration. The price tag of this project doubled due to construction and labor costs.

Once completed, the Arkansas Valley Conduit will provide 7,500 acre- feet of water per year to as many as 50,000 Coloradans across 40 different communities in Pueblo, Otero, Bent, Kiowa, Prowers, Crowley, and Baca Counties.

I boldly remind my colleagues here today that this project broke ground during the first Trump administration in 2020 due to major investments from the Trump-led Bureau of Reclamation and the State of Colorado.

From 1962 until 2020, only $24 million had been invested in this project. In 2020, President Trump and his team, his administration, did the right thing, continuing with their commitment to improve Western water infrastructure. He more than doubled the Federal investments in this project with $28 million going toward it. The State of Colorado then invested over $100 million in this project.

Former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt personally attended the groundbreaking of the AVC and retweeted: ``For nearly 60 years, Colorado's leaders have worked to move the Arkansas Valley Conduit forward.''

The Trump administration got it done.

A press release from the Department of the Interior announcing the groundbreaking reads: ``Western water supply reliability and infrastructure investments has been a priority for President Trump and his administration.''

This bill makes good on not only a 60-year plus commitment without wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in State and local and Federal investments, but it also makes good on President Trump's commitment to rural communities, to Western water issues.

President Trump's commitment to Western water supply and reliability will be upheld, and the Arkansas Valley Conduit will finally be completed.

We were able to get this bill passed and sent to the White House the right way, the way that I have fought for since I have been in Congress. This is a piece of legislation that has gone through committee, has been negotiated, has been debated, has gone back and forth between both Chambers, and we were able to pass this single- subject legislation all the way through with unanimous support in this body and in the Senate. It is something I am very, very proud of, and it is past time that we finally fulfill the promise that the Federal Government made to the communities I represent in Colorado. I urge my colleagues to support this override to finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit.

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