Defense bill advancing in House
Trump continues veto threat over social media shield
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House is moving toward approval of a wide-ranging defense policy bill, even as President Donald Trump renews his threat to veto the bill unless lawmakers clamp down on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election.
Trump tweeted Tuesday that he will veto “the very weak National Defense Authorization Act,” unless it repeals so-called Section 230, a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants from content liability. Trump also wants Congress to strip out a provision of the bill that allows renaming of military bases now named for Confederate leaders.
Congressional leaders have signaled they will move ahead on the bill — which affirms automatic 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes other military programs — despite the veto threat.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House Republican leadership, urged Trump not to follow through on his veto threat, but added that if he does veto it, “We should override.”
If Trump vetoes the bill, “we will come back to vote to override,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
But with Trump pressuring Republicans to stand with him, it remains to be seen whether the bill will receive the two-thirds support that would be needed to override a veto. The House Freedom Caucus, a bloc of roughly three-dozen conservatives, backed Trump’s position Tuesday and said it will oppose the bill.
Smith and other lawmakers noted that many defense programs can only go into effect if the bill is approved, including military construction. The measure guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, military personnel policy and other military goals.
Troops should not be “punished” because politicians failed to enact needed legislation to ensure their pay, said Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on the Armed Services panel. The $731 billion measure increases hazardous duty pay for overseas deployments and other dangerous job assignments, hikes recruiting and retention bonuses and adjusts housing allowances.
The dispute over social media content interjects an unrelated but complicated issue into a bill that Congress takes pride in having passed unfailingly for nearly 60 years. It follows Trump’s bid to block the package with an earlier veto threat over Confederate base names.
Measures approved by the House and Senate would require the Pentagon to rename bases such as Fort Benning and Fort Hood that are named for Confederate generals, but Trump opposes the idea and has threatened a veto over it. The fight broke out this summer amid widespread protests over police killings of unarmed Black men and women.
Smith and Thornberry said in a joint statement last week that lawmakers had “toiled through almost 2,200 provisions to reach compromise on important issues affecting our national security and our military.”
For 59 straight years, they added, the National Defense Authorization Act has passed because lawmakers and presidents agreed to set aside their own preferences “and put the needs of our military personnel and America’s security first. The time has come to do that again.”