The United States Congress this Friday gave a humiliating blow to Donald Trump in his last weeks in the White House, in the vote in favor of removing the presidential veto on the Defense budget, on the first occasion that lawmakers reverse one of their vetoes.
With an 81-13 vote in favor of removing the veto – more than the required two-thirds – the Republican-controlled Senate passed the Defense Budget Act by $ 740.5 billion for fiscal year 2021.
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The House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, had already voted in favor of reversing the veto on Monday with 322 votes in favor and 87 against. Both chambers had already passed the budget law in early December and by a large majority, but Trump – citing a number of objections – vetoed it on December 23.
“It’s time we passed this law,” Republican majority leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell said at the start of Friday’s session.
“It is our opportunity to remind the brave in military service and their families that we support them”.
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The vote, a startling reprimand to Trump in his last weeks in office, occurred during an extraordinary New Year’s session which had to be convened after the presidential veto. It’s probably the final act of outgoing Congress.
This veto promises to raise tension between the outgoing president and his party leaders in the Senate, with whom he has already clashed because the majority have already recognized Joe Biden as president-elect, which he does not accept.
The new members will be sworn in on Sunday, just 17 days before Democrat Biden takes office.
An unprecedented veto in decades
Last week, Trump became the first president in 59 years to oppose approving the defense budget, In clear confrontation with Republican leaders.
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The president decided to veto the so-called National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 because, among other things, he considers it a “gift” for China and Russia and because it restricts his ability to withdraw troops. Americans from Germany, South Korea and Afghanistan, as he had previously promised.
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In addition, the ruler opposed the law because includes a provision to rename a dozen military bases named in honor of Southern Confederate leaders in the Civil War (1861-1865), who are considered a racist symbol to represent those who advocated slavery.
The president finally wanted the legislation to include a clause to end the so-called “Section 230”, which protects internet giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google from any legal consequences for what third parties post on their websites. .
“Our Republican Senate lost the opportunity to overthrow Section 230 which gives unlimited powers to the Great Technology Companies.”, Trump tweeted after the House pronouncement. “Pathetic !!!” he stated.
Referring to the Senate’s refusal to first vote on a motion to increase financial compensation for the pandemic, he added: “Now they want to give $ 600 to people devastated by the China Virus instead of the 2,000 they desperately need.”, He said using the term he commonly uses to refer to the coronavirus.
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But members of the Republican Party itself – which has always boasted of being strong on defense issues – stressed the importance of this budget law.
“It is absolutely vital to our national security and to our troops.”, Said Sen. Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Armed Forces Commission. “Our men and women who wear the uniform voluntarily should not be denied what they need, never.”
Democrats in both houses had also criticized Trump’s veto. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “an act of recklessness.”
The National Defense Authorization Act serves to fund Pentagon operations abroad and includes salary increases for soldiers, funds for new military equipment, and to pay for the health care of troops.
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Senator Jack Reed, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Armed Forces Commission, told the Senate on Friday that the bill was “essential” to strengthen the country’s cybersecurity against widespread attacks, Such as those that recently affected the government and some private companies.
On Trump’s view that Beijing and Moscow would also pass the law, Reed responded that it was “completely unfounded.” Inhofe and Reed congratulated each other after a long collaboration to draft the law, a rare occasion for bipartisan cooperation in a deeply divided Congress.
Attempt to increase payments to citizens fails
Tensions between Trump and Republican leaders in the Senate have also risen as a result of the president’s five-day delay in signing a new pandemic stimulus plan. and their demand that they be increased from $ 600 to $ 2,000 from direct payments to citizens included in this law.
Republican leaders in the Senate blocked this Friday for the fourth day in a row the Democrats’ attempt to increase the sum of these direct transfers to taxpayers with an annual income of less than $ 75,000.
This means that the initiative, which was already approved last Monday by the lower house, will not go ahead for now, And in any case should be considered and voted again from Sunday, when he will take office a new Congress emerged from the November elections.
“(Approving this change) would be socialism for rich people,” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said Friday in a speech in the Senate plenary.
Americans who meet the income requirements will instead receive a one-time payment of $ 600, as contemplated in the stimulus plan approved in December.
AFP and EFE