Congress overturns Donald Trump for the first time in four years

Congress has overruled U.S. President Donald Trump’s veto of a defense policy bill, the first by lawmakers since he took office nearly four years ago.

In a special session on New Year’s Day, the Republican-controlled Senate easily bypassed the veto, dismissing Trump’s objections to the $ 740 billion bill and giving him a harsh reprimand just weeks before his term ends.

Trump had lashed out at Republican lawmakers on Twitter, accusing earlier this week that “a weak and tired Republican leadership” would allow the bad defense bill to pass.

Trump called the impending override vote a “shameful act of cowardice and total submission of weak people to big technologies. Negotiate a better bill or get better leaders, NOW!”

The 81-13 vote in the Senate followed an earlier 322-87 House vote on the widely popular defense measure. The bill provides a 3 percent salary increase for US troops and guides defense policy, cementing decisions on troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, personnel policy and other military objectives.

Many programs, including military construction, can only go into effect if the bill passes.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said before the vote that Congress had passed the National Defense Authorization Act every year for 59 years in a row, “and one way or another, we’re going to complete the 60th edition. annual NDAA and make it law before this date. Congress concludes Sunday. “

The bill “takes care of our brave men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform,” McConnell said. “But it is also a great opportunity: to direct our national security priorities to reflect the determination of the American people and the evolving threats to their security, at home and abroad. It is our opportunity to ensure we keep pace with competitors like Russia and China. “

The Senate override was delayed after Senator Bernie Sanders objected to moving forward until McConnell allowed a vote on a Trump-backed plan to increase Covid-19 aid payments to $ 2,000.

McConnell did not allow that vote; instead, he used his parliamentary power to establish a vote that would limit debate on the defense measure, overcoming an obstructionist threat from Sanders and New York’s Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Without a bipartisan agreement, voting on the bill could have been delayed until Saturday night.

Lawmakers, however, agreed to roll over immediately on Friday once the obstructionist threat was stopped.

Trump rejected the defense measure last week, saying it did not limit social media companies that he said were biased against him during his failed re-election campaign.

Trump also opposed language allowing the renaming of military bases that honor Confederate leaders.

Senator Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “disappointed” with Trump’s veto and called the bill “absolutely vital to our national security and our troops.”

“This is the most important bill we have,” Inhofe said. “It puts the military first.”

Trump has managed during his four-year term to impose party discipline in Congress, with few Republicans willing to publicly oppose him. The bipartisan overrides of the defense bill showed the limits of Trump’s influence in the final weeks of his term.

Earlier this week, 130 House Republicans voted against the Trump-backed Covid aid checks, with many arguing that they were unnecessary and would increase the federal budget deficit.

The Democratic-controlled House approved the largest payments, but the plan is dead in the Senate, another sign of Trump’s ever-increasing control over Congress.

In addition to his concerns about social media and the names of military bases, Trump also said the defense bill restricted his ability to conduct foreign policy, “in particular my efforts to bring our troops home.” .

Trump was referring to provisions in the bill that impose conditions on his plan to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan and Germany.

The measures require the Pentagon to submit reports certifying that the proposed withdrawals would not jeopardize the national security of the United States.

Trump has vetoed eight other bills, but all were upheld because supporters did not get the two-thirds of the votes needed in each house for the bills to become law without Trump’s signature.

Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Trump’s December 23 veto a “parting gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin “and a lump of coal for our troops.

Donald Trump is showing more devotion to Confederate rank and file names than to the men and women who defend our nation.