The House failed to override President Donald Trump’s veto of flooding protections for the Miccosukee Tribe’s Osceola Camp. Instead, the issue was referred back to the House Natural Resources Committee.

The House voted 236-188 to support the legislation, with seven members voting “present.” But an override of the veto would have required two-thirds of lawmakers, or 287 votes.

In total, 24 Republicans voted with all Democrats in attempting to override the bill. Those included U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar, all Miami-Dade County Republicans. U.S. Rep. John Rutherford, a Jacksonville Republican, did not vote, but all other Florida Republicans voted to sustain Trump’s veto.

The bill (HR 504) was sponsored by Giménez and supported by the Florida congressional delegation.

Still, Trump nixed the bipartisan legislation at the end of 2025 after it passed the House on a voice vote and the Senate by unanimous consent, marking one of the first vetoes of his second term.

Trump called the bill “special treatment” and raised a lawsuit brought by the Tribe that briefly halted operations at Alligator Alcatraz, a migrant detention center opened by the state in the Florida Everglades.

“My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding projects for special interests, especially those that are unaligned with my Administration’s policy of removing violent criminal illegal aliens from the country,” Trump wrote in a veto message. “Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation.”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Weston Democrat, criticized the veto and the President’s logic in a speech on the House floor.

“It does not appropriate or authorize any new spending. The Congressional Budget Office verified that,” she said. “And this bill, in no way bestows special treatment, as it was alleged in the veto message, because the site wasn’t authorized when it was inhabited on these points. It appears the President’s staff gave him bad advice, bad facts, or both.”

But despite the bill passing in the House without any objection in July, the prospect of overriding a veto proved daunting in the lower chamber.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, House Natural Resources Committee Chair, was the only lawmaker to speak on the floor against the bill. He acknowledged that the bill passed without objection, but suggested that Congress respect the President’s check on the legislative branch.

“HR 504, passed the House Committee on natural resources in June 2025, and the House of Representatives in July 2025,” he said. “However, I respect the President’s views on this legislation and his commitment to fiscal responsibility.”