Colorado voters rejected hosting the 1976 Winter Olympics after Denver had been granted the games, in what was probably the most humiliating event in the history of Olympic host city competition. Concerns were raised concerning the financial and environmental consequences. The "no" vote was 543 to 39. Only Utah voted against the proposal. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) said it respected the decision of Denver's government and citizens, but continued to support bringing the Games to Colorado in 1988. However, the US Congress passed a law prohibiting the USOC from spending federal funds on any more games until 1990, which effectively killed any hope for Denver to host the games again. In 2009, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would be re-opening its bidding process for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Although Denver was among the initial candidates, it was eliminated during the first round of voting by the USOC board. Currently, only four cities are known to have submitted applications for consideration: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, and San Francisco. It is possible that other cities may enter the bidding process at a later date. In addition, Brussels, Belgium has expressed an interest in submitting a bid for the 2020 games. If these cities were to win their bids, they would join Vancouver as the only cities to have hosted the games twice before.