Home overwrites Trump’s $ 740 billion veto

An F / A-18F Super Hornet takes off from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alex Corona | US Navy

WASHINGTON – The House voted Monday to overturn President Donald Trump’s veto of an annual defense spending bill and place final steps against the Republican president in the hands of the GOP-led Senate.

The measure to override Trump’s veto on the Defense Act was passed between 322-87 Monday evening. The Senate will next vote on whether the veto should be overridden.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his house would vote on lifting the veto on Tuesday.

The bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, was passed on December 8 with the support of more than three-quarters of the chamber. A large majority of the GOP-controlled Senate also approved the bill, giving both chambers a higher percentage of yes votes than the two-thirds required to defeat a presidential veto.

The Comprehensive Defense Bill, which authorizes $ 740 billion in spending and outlines Pentagon policy, is usually passed with strong bipartisan support and veto-proof majorities as it funds America’s national security portfolio. It was legally signed every year for nearly six consecutive decades.

The passage of the law will at least secure pay increases for soldiers and keep important defense modernization programs going.

Trump offered a number of reasons to oppose this year’s 4,517-page NDAA, questioning the bill as to both what it contains and what is missing.

The president has called for the bill to protect social media companies from the protection of language under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects them from being held liable for what users say on their platforms. Trump, who has used Twitter extensively throughout his presidency, has long accused media of bias.

In his veto message to Congress, Trump wrote that the NDAA “has made no significant changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.” He called on Congress to lift the measure.

The president previously said the move posed a serious threat to US national security as well as electoral integrity, but gave no further explanation.

Trump’s ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., wrote on Twitter last week that he would not vote to override the president’s veto. Graham didn’t vote for the bill for the first time.

Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, passed a law on December 15 that would end Section 230 protection by January 1, 2023.