House votes to override Trump’s veto of military bill
The House voted on Monday to override President Donald Trump’s veto of the annual military policy bill, mustering bipartisan support to enact the legislation over the president’s objections and handing him a rare legislative rebuke in the final days of his presidency.
The 322-87 vote is the first time a chamber of Congress has agreed to override one of Trump’s vetoes, underscoring the sweeping popularity of the military legislation, which authorizes a pay raise for the nation’s troops. It also amounted to a remarkable reprimand over the president’s decision to flout one of his party’s key orthodoxies — projecting military strength — from Republicans who have been reluctant to challenge Trump during his four years in office.
The margin surpassed the two-thirds majority needed to force enactment of the bill over Trump’s objections. The Senate, which must also get approval from two-thirds of its chamber, will take up the legislation later in the week.
But attempts to quickly pass it in the Senate could be complicated by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who said Monday that he would delay consideration of the military bill unless lawmakers voted on a separate bill – one that would increase the size of individual stimulus checks to $2,000.
The House on Monday passed its own bill that would raise direct stimulus payments to $2,000 from the $600 included in the coronavirus relief package that Trump signed into law Sunday. That prompted several senators, including Sanders and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, to call for a similar vote in the Senate.
Congress has succeeded in passing the military bill each year for 60 years, with lawmakers relishing the opportunity to assert their support for national security and bring home wins to their constituents.
But Trump, making good on a monthslong series of threats, vetoed the bipartisan legislation Wednesday, citing a shifting list of reasons including his objection to a provision directing the military to strip the names of Confederate leaders from bases. He also demanded that the bill include the repeal of a legal shield for social media companies that he has tangled with, a significant legislative change that Republicans and Democrats alike have said is irrelevant to a bill that dictates military policy.