Bipartisan lawmakers will join forces against President Trump over a vote on the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act! The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the bill on the 8th, but Trump has threatened to veto the bill for reasons not directly related to its content. The president’s approach has not only angered the Democrats, but has also upset the Republicans. Lawmakers from both parties have said that if Trump does veto the defense authorization bill, they will vote again to override the president’s veto.
According to The Hill, the National Defense Authorization Act has been law for 59 consecutive years and is widely regarded as a must-pass bill. Smith, a Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, and Thornberry, the Republican leader of the committee, both spoke to reporters on July 7 about the importance of the bill becoming law. Both emphasized that House members would cut short their vacation to meet early if necessary to override Trump’s veto. Liz Cheney, one of the Republican leaders in the House, called on Trump on the 7th not to veto the bill. Other Republicans are also prepared to confront the president on the issue, AFP said on Aug. 8.
The U.S. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 includes several provisions that Trump is unhappy with, such as limiting U.S. troop withdrawals from Germany and renaming military bases after Confederate military commanders, but it is not those that the president is most unhappy with. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump previously threatened to veto the defense authorization bill if it did not include a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is seen as an “umbrella” for the rapid growth of Internet companies, as it not only exempts Internet service providers from liability for content posted by users, but also gives them the freedom to censor content posted by users in “good faith. Trump believes that these social media outlets are systematically biased against conservatives and pose a serious threat to national security and electoral integrity. After this year’s election, Twitter took measures such as tagging Trump’s controversial tweets.
According to CNN and other media outlets, Trump’s threat sparked a swift and sharp backlash among lawmakers from both parties, who accused the president of using his influence over the military to exact personal revenge. “There is simply no reason. Trump will probably veto every bill because there’s nothing in it that he wants,” Smith criticized.
Trump has turned national security into a political fight, according to The Washington Post. According to The Hill, all eyes in the United States this week are on the showdown between the president and Congress. If Congress succeeds in overriding Trump’s veto, it will mark the first time a Trump veto has been overridden, according to Politico.
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