Bill vetoed by Trump would bring billions to Connecticut
The defense bill that President Donald Trump vetoed on Wednesday includes billions of dollars for fighter jet engine, submarine and helicopter manufacturing in Connecticut.
The measure passed the House of Representatives and Senate last week with veto-proof margins.
An override vote is scheduled for Monday in the House, according to Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the Senate will be in session Tuesday for an override vote, but that pro-Trump Republicans and other senators who opposed the measure may impede a vote with procedural moves. A two-thirds majority is required to override a veto.
Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the veto a “deeply destructive blunder” that must be promptly overridden.
“It is really pathetic and crazy, as well as downright dangerous,” he said. Courtney, chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee, slammed Trump’s veto “and the incoherent statement that accompanied it.”
“The bill he trashed is the product of a full year of bipartisan work that strengthens deterrence in the Indo-Pacific with a groundbreaking Pacific Defense Initiative that our allies strongly support, a revamping of cyber defense to counter Russia’s brazen hacking and new protections for victims of Agent Orange,” said Courtney, D-2nd.
Trump called for limits on social media companies he claimed are biased against him and to strip out language that allows for the renaming of military bases after Confederate leaders.
Funding that will benefit Connecticut includes:
$2.9 billion for the first Columbia Class ballistic missile submarine that will replace the Ohio Class of ballistic missile submarines and $1.3 billion for the Columbia for submarine supplier development.
$4.6 billion for two Virginia Class submarines, restoring a cut in Trump’s budget request.
$2.2 billion in advance procurement to fund future submarines.
$8.7 billion for 93 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
$800.6 million to fund seven CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters and more than $406.4 million in research, development and testing and evaluation.
$725.3 million for 21 UH-60M and 15 HH-60M Black Hawk helicopters. $1.1 billion for 19 combat rescue helicopters.
In his veto message to the House, Trump cited his objections and said the measure “fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military’s history, and contradicts efforts by my Administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions.”