The United States Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, on Friday, December 18, 2020.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The House is due to vote Monday on whether to overturn President Donald Trump’s veto of an annual defense spending bill.
A replacement would be like a bipartisan reproach to the Republican president in the last days of his administration.
The House, headed by President Nancy Pelosi, D-California, will be convened at 2 p.m. ET. The vote to overturn Trump’s rejection of the massive defense bill, which authorizes a $ 740 billion spending limit and outlines Pentagon policy, is expected around 5 p.m. If approved, the annulment measure will go to the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said his chamber will vote to lift the veto on Tuesday.
The bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, was passed by the House on December 8 with the support of more than three-quarters of the House. A large majority of the Senate controlled by the Republican Party also passed the bill, giving both chambers a proportion of votes yes higher than the two-thirds needed to defeat a presidential veto.
The general defense bill usually passes with strong bipartisan support and veto-proof majorities, as it finances the U.S. national security portfolio. It has been signed into law for nearly six consecutive decades.
The passage of the bill, at the very least, ensures soldiers ’pay rises and keeps crucial defense modernization programs in place.
Trump offered several reasons to oppose this year’s 4,517-page NDAA, questioning the bill for both what it contains and what it lacks.
The president has demanded that the bill include the protection of languages for social media companies in accordance with section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects them from being responsible for what users say to their platforms. Trump, who used Twitter prolifically throughout his presidency, has long accused the media of bias.
In his veto message in Congress, Trump wrote that the NDAA did not make “any significant changes to section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.” He called on Congress to repeal the measure.
The president has previously said the measure posed a serious threat to U.S. national security and the integrity of the election, but gave no explanatory details.
Trump’s ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., wrote on Twitter that she would not vote to overturn the president’s veto. Graham did not vote on the bill the first time.
Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation on December 15 that would end, on January 1, 2023, Article 230 protections.