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President Donald Trump has vetoed the annual defense policy bill, following through on threats to stop a measure that has broad bipartisan support in Congress and that could establish the first override vote of his presidency.
The bill claims 3% wage increases for US troops and authorizes more than $ 740 billion in military and construction programs.
Long before issuing the veto, President Trump offered a number of reasons for rejecting it. He has asked politicians to include limits on social media companies that he says are biased against them, and to remove language that allows the renaming of military bases such as Fort Benning and Fort Hood that honor leaders. Confederates.
Without going into details, he claimed that the biggest winner of the defense bill would be China.
In his veto message to the House, President Trump cited those objections and stated that the measure “does not include critical national security measures, includes provisions that do not respect our veterans and the history of our military, and contradicts my efforts. administration to put America first. ” in our national security and foreign policy actions. It is a ‘gift’ for China and Russia ”.
Both the House and Senate passed the measure by margins large enough to override a president’s veto.
President Trump had vetoed eight bills previously, but those vetoes held up because supporters did not get the two-thirds of the votes needed in each house for the bill to become law without his signature.
Before the veto, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the bill would help deter Chinese aggression. Other Republican supporters of the measure, including Senator John Thune, the second Senate leader, and Mike Gallagher, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, tweeted that the bill would counter threats from countries like China.
Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said President Trump’s statement that China was the biggest winner on the defense bill was false. Reed also pointed to the shifting explanations President Trump had given for the veto.
“President Trump clearly has not read the bill, nor does he understand what it contains,” Reed said.
“There are several bipartisan provisions here that get tougher on China than the Trump Administration has been.”
The measure guides Pentagon policy and informs decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, military personnel policy, and other military objectives. Many programs can only go into effect if the bill passes, including military construction.
McConnell, in a rare break with President Trump, had urged approval despite the threat of vetoing it. McConnell said it was important that Congress continue its nearly six-decade streak of passing the defense policy bill.
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