US House overrides Trump veto of defence bill
WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives dealt a blow to President Donald Trump on Monday by rejecting his veto of a defence bill, se ing the stage for the Senate to deliver a humiliating first veto override in the final days of his presidency.
The Democratic-controlled House voted 322 to 87 to override Trump’s veto of the US$740.5 billion defence bill, with 109 members of the president’s own Republican Party siding with Democrats.
A similar motion will be introduced in the Republicanmajority Senate, where it will also have to gain two-thirds support to override the president’s veto.
In a statement released a er the vote, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Trump’s veto as ‘ reckless’ and called on the president to ‘ end his eleventh-hour campaign of chaos’.
The House vote came a day a er Trump caved to pressure from both Republicans and Democrats and reluctantly signed a US$900 billion coronavirus relief and stimulus package that he had threatened to veto.
Trump’s capitulation on the Covid-19 relief bill and the looming congressional veto override are the latest signs of his waning powers as he prepares to leave the White House on Jan 20.
The fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorisation Act was passed this month by 335 votes to 78 in the House and by 84 to 13 in the Senate.
But the NDAA was vetoed by the president because it did not repeal Section 230, a federal law that provides liability protection
to internet companies.
Trump also opposed a provision that would strip several US military bases of the names of generals who fought for the secessionist, pro-slavery South in the 1861-65 Civil War.
Including the defence bill, Trump has vetoed nine bills during his four years in the White House. Congress has not previously mustered the votes needed to override any of his vetoes.
For a real estate tycoon who prides himself as a master negotiator, the past few days have been an exercise in
humiliation.
Trump threatened for days not to sign the Covid-19 relief and spending bill that had been hammered out by his own treasury secretary and had received broad bipartisan support in Congress.
His surprise move risked shu ing down the government from Tuesday and depriving millions of Americans of economic relief badly needed during the pandemic.
He finally backed down under bipartisan pressure and signed the bill on Sunday night at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, out of sight of television cameras.
But in an a empt to save face, Trump released a statement airing his grievances about the Nov 3 election and claiming that he had obtained a number of concessions on the relief bill.
Among Trump’s demands was increasing direct relief payments to Americans from US$600 to US$2,000.
The House, in a 275 to 134 vote, approved a motion on Monday to increase the payments to US$2,000, but it is likely to meet with resistance from Republicans in the Senate. — AFP