The U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, the United States, on Friday, December 18, 2020.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The House was due to vote Monday on whether to overturn President Donald Trump’s veto of an annual defense spending bill.
An override would be seen as a bipartisan reprimand against the Republican president in the final days of his administration.
The house, led by Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Will meet at 2 p.m. (CET). The vote to overturn Trump’s rejection of the massive defense law, which authorizes a $ 740 billion spending cap and outlines Pentagon policy, is expected around 5 p.m. If it is passed, the override measure will then go to the Senate.
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 passed the bill, giving both houses a higher percentage of yes-votes than the two-thirds required to defeat a presidential veto.
The comprehensive defense law is usually passed with strong support from both parties and veto-proof majorities, as it funds America’s national security portfolio. It was legally signed 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 used Twitter extensively during his presidency, has long accused media companies 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 that he would not vote to overturn 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.
