[ad_1]
The United States Congress on Friday struck a humiliating blow to Donald Trump in his final weeks in the White House, by vote in favor of eliminating the presidential veto on the Defense budget, the first time that legislators reverse one of their vetoes.
With an 81-13 vote in favor of eliminating the veto – more than the two-thirds required -, the Republican-controlled Senate passed the Defense budget law for $ 740.5 billion for fiscal year 2021.
(Read also: The United States exceeds 20 million infections of covid-19).
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives had already voted in favor of reversing the veto on Monday with 322 votes in favor and 87 against. Both houses had already approved the budget law in early December and with large majorities, but Trump – citing a series of objections – vetoed it on December 23.
“It is time we passed this law,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said at the beginning of Friday’s session.
“This is our chance to remind the brave in military service and their families that we stand behind them.”.
(Of your interest: Outrageous case of abandonment of a 3-year-old boy and his dog).
The vote, a shocking rebuke to Trump in his final weeks in office, occurred during an extraordinary New Years session which should have been called after the presidential veto. It is probably the final act of the outgoing Congress.
The new members will be sworn in on Sunday, just 17 days after Democrat Joe Biden takes office.
Trump’s complaints
Trump had criticized the bill in various respects and in clear confrontation with Republican leaders. Among other things, considered it a “gift” to China and Russia and said it would restrict their ability to reduce troop presence Americans in Afghanistan, South Korea and other countries.
(We recommend: Pharmacist who thawed 500 doses of covid-19 vaccine arrested).
He also rejected that the name change was indicated for those military installations that recall leaders of the slave-owning south during the Civil War (1860-1865). AND he insisted that the bill end the federal law known as “Section 230”, which protects internet companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google against content published by third parties, which it considers biased against conservative principles.
“Our Republican Senate missed the opportunity to tear down Section 230 which gives Big Tech Companies unlimited powers”Trump tweeted after the House ruling. “Pathetic !!!”, affirmed.
Referring to the Senate’s refusal to vote first on a motion to increase financial compensation for the pandemic, he added: “Now they want to give 600 dollars to the people ravaged by the China Virus instead of the 2,000 that they desperately need”he said, using the term he usually uses to refer to the coronavirus.
(Further: An Afro teenager is falsely accused of stealing an iPhone in the US.).
But members of the Republican Party itself – which has always prided itself on being strong on defense issues – stressed the importance of this budget law.
“It is absolutely vital for our national security and for our troops.”said Senator Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Armed Forces commission. “Our men and women who wear the uniform voluntarily should not be denied what they need, ever.”
Democrats in both houses had also criticized Trump’s veto. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, called it “an act of recklessness.”
(Keep reading: Trump extends partial immigration suspension until March).
Senator Jack Reed, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Armed Forces committee, said in the Senate on Friday that the bill was “essential” to bolster the country’s cybersecurity against widespread attacks, such as those that recently affected the government and some private companies.
On Trump’s view that Beijing and Moscow would also pass the law, Reed replied that it was “completely unfounded.” Inhofe and Reed congratulated each other after a long collaboration to draft the law, a rare occasion for bipartisan cooperation in a deeply divided Congress.
AFP
