The US upper house. The U.S., Republican-majority, voted Friday to lift the veto Trump had imposed on the $ 741 billion annual defense budget law.
The U.S. Senate for the first time on Friday lifted a veto by outgoing President Donald Trump, immersed in an increasingly tense pulse with his party leaders just days from leaving the White House. The vote in the full Senate was 81 votes in favor and 13 against, well above the two-thirds majority needed to invalidate the veto, and completed the process in Congress to make the defense budget law. , after the lower house also backed the initiative last Monday.
Trump against his party
Trump called Congress’ decision “pathetic” in a tweet after the vote, in a show he plans to continue the war he has launched in recent weeks on his party’s Senate leader Mitch McConnell and other politicians republicans.
Trump’s attempt to interfere in the Jan. 6 session in which Congress ratified victory in the November election of President-elect Joe Biden has raised tensions with McConnell, and promises to mark the last few weeks in the power of the outgoing trustee, who will relinquish power on January 20th.
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Trump’s decision to veto, last week, the defense budget for fiscal year 2021 was unprecedented in the last 59 years, and he ran into strong opposition in a country that often puts the welfare of its troops above all.
The details of the law
The president decided to veto the so-called National Defense Authorization Act because, among other things, it restricts his ability to withdraw U.S. troops from Germany, South Korea and Afghanistan, as he had promised.
In addition, the ruler opposed the law because it includes a provision to change the name of a dozen military bases named in honor of the leaders of the Southern Confederation in the Civil War (1861-1865), who are considered a symbol racist 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 Twitter and Facebook from any legal consequences for what third parties post on their websites.
The National Defense Authorization Act serves to fund Pentagon operations abroad, and includes pay rises for soldiers, funds for new military equipment, and to pay for the health care of troops.
Attempt to increase payments to citizens fails
In addition to Trump’s veto, tensions between the president and Republicans have also increased due to the president’s five-day delay in signing a new pandemic stimulus plan, and his demand that it be increased. from $ 600 to $ 2,000 direct payments to citizens included in this law.
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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, will take possession of a new Congress emerged from the November elections. “(Approving this change) would be socialism for rich people,” McConnell said Friday in a Senate plenary.
Americans who meet the income requirements began receiving a one-time payment of $ 600 this Friday, as contemplated in the stimulus plan approved in December.