On Monday (Dec. 28), the U.S. House of Representatives voted to override President Trump‘s (Trump) veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. This is the first time the House has overridden a Trump veto.
Trump last Wednesday (Dec. 23) formally vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with a budget of $740 billion for fiscal year 2021, after it failed to repeal legal protections for the social media giant, while also allowing the renaming of 10 military installations named after Confederate leaders.
“This is a ‘gift’ to China (Communist Party of China) and Russia.” Trump said.
On Monday, the House voted 322 to 87 to override the president’s veto, more than the two-thirds majority needed to override it.
The Senate now faces a vote, and to override the president’s veto, the Senate would need the same two-thirds majority.
The Senate had passed the National Defense Authorization Act on Dec. 11 by a vote of 84 to 13, and the House had earlier passed the bill by a vote of 335 to 78.
In Monday’s vote, 109 Republican House members supported the current version of the NDAA and the override of a presidential veto; another 66 Republicans voted against the bill. That compares with 40 Republicans who voted against the bill when it was voted on earlier this month.
On the other hand, several Democrats also changed their tune, with 20 Democratic House members opposing the bill on Monday, compared to 37 previously.
The Senate is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to begin the veto override process. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Dec. 22, “If the president vetoes the bill and the House votes down the veto, the Senate will have the opportunity to vote to override the veto.”
The final Senate veto vote is expected to last several days, as any senator who supports President Trump’s veto could use procedural hurdles (such as a mandatory cloture vote) to delay the voting process. Senators said the final vote could take place on the morning of Jan. 3, a few hours before the new Congress begins.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who briefly delayed passage of the NDAA earlier this month, said he could similarly delay a vote to override a presidential veto.
Paul told reporters last week, “I’m very much against the war in Afghanistan, and I told them that I would come back and stop them from easily overriding the president’s veto.”
Trump also said when he vetoed the NDAA last week that the bill still failed to make any meaningful changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDAA).
That section gives social media companies immunity from being sued for content that appears on their platforms, or for removing portions of it.
“Failure to end Section 230 – the very dangerous national security risk it poses would make our intelligence efforts nearly impossible to execute because it lets everyone know what we are doing with our (intelligence) every step of the way.” Trump said in his veto letter.
In this year’s U.S. election fraud controversy, high-tech companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook have continued to exercise a policy of deletion and suppression of speech suggesting election fraud and fraudulent votes, under the protection of Section 230. Posts including those by Trump and Republican lawmakers have been repeatedly hidden or labeled.
President Trump on Monday retweeted senior Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) Sunday tweet that Congress will vote on additional stimulus measures as well as repeal of Section 230, both of which are victories for the American people.
In his veto statement last week, Trump noted that the NDAA does not support his “authority to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Germany and South Korea.”
“Not only is this a bad policy, but it violates the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution makes the President the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States and gives him executive authority. As such, decisions about how many troops to deploy and in areas such as Afghanistan, Germany and South Korea are his to make. Congress may not delegate such authority, directly or indirectly, to Congress itself under spending limitations.” Trump wrote.
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