U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed the defense Authorization Act of 2021 on Wednesday. The 4, 500-page bill, which is worth more than $740 billion, passed congress this month by a wide margin. Mr. Trump called the bill a “great gift to China and Russia,” and said his veto included his opposition to exempting social media companies from liability because he did not believe it had anything to do with national security. Nor did he want to rename the military bases now named after the generals of the slave states in the South during the Civil War.
Technically, the National Defense Authorization Act, once passed by Congress, still has to be signed by the president to take effect. The president has the power to veto or refuse to sign the bill on grounds of disagreement. But if both chambers vote two-thirds of the way, Congress can override a presidential veto and force the bill into law. The government’s funding expires on Monday, December 28, and a vote in the House of Representatives is also expected to override the president’s veto. The Senate is expected to vote next Tuesday.
If Congress does not override trump’s veto in this way, it would be the first time in 60 years that the National Defense Authorization Act has not been enacted.
Before Mr. Trump decided to veto the bill, several close aides had talked him out of vetoing it, which would likely still be overturned by Congress.
The National Defense Authorization Act sets the direction for Pentagon policy. It also decides on national security measures related to weapons, personnel, and troop deployments. If the bill does not pass into law, a series of military programs will be suspended, including a 3 percent pay raise for active-duty service members this year.
One reason Mr. Trump vetoed the legislation was his opposition to its provisions limiting American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and Europe. He called the provisions limiting troop withdrawals “not just bad policy, but unconstitutional.”
Moreover, Trump continues to oppose the renaming of a military base named after the leader of the Confederate States of America. The Confederate States of America, which broke away from the United States in the 1860s, was a union of slave states in the South that lost the Civil War to the United States and collapsed in 1865.
Mr Trump’s term expires on 20 January and Mr Biden will take over as president.
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