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US President Donald Trump salutes as he boards Air Force One with First Lady Melania Trump at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, the United States, on December 23, 2020. REUTERS / Tom Brenner
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan defense policy bill and raised the possibility that the United States could face a government shutdown during a pandemic, sparking further unrest in Washington as he headed to Florida for Christmas.
Angry at his fellow Republicans in Congress, Trump attempted to reshape two complex laws that were passed by Congress by wide bipartisan margins after months of negotiations.
Trump followed through on the threat to veto the defense bill and demanded dramatic changes to a $ 2.3 trillion package that funds the federal government and provides nearly $ 900 billion in coronavirus aid.
If Trump blocks the spending package, much of the U.S. government could begin shutting down next week for lack of funds at a time when officials are distributing two coronavirus vaccines and working to respond to a massive attack. hacking.
With less than a month in office, Trump is angry that some Republicans have acknowledged his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in the November 3 election. Biden will be sworn in as president on January 20.
Trump said he vetoed the defense policy bill, which has been passed every year since 1961, because he opposed liability protections for social media companies unrelated to national security and did not want to change the name of the military bases that currently bear the name of generals who fought for the professional. -The slavery of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Democrats and Republicans opposed Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act.
“I hope to overturn the president’s unsuccessful and ridiculous attempt to undermine our national security,” Democratic Senator Mark Warner said in a statement.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, a Republican, also criticized Trump’s veto.
“The NDAA has become law every year for 59 years in a row because it is absolutely vital to our national security and our troops,” Inhofe said. “This year should not be an exception.”
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Wednesday that the House would return on December 28 to vote whether to override Trump’s veto. That is the same day that government funding expires. A vote in the Senate is expected soon after.
Trump surprised allies
In a video posted to social media Tuesday night, Trump surprised some of his closest officials by demanding that lawmakers change the coronavirus aid portion of the spending bill to include payments of $ 2,000. to each American, more than triple the $ 600 per person provided.
A source familiar with the situation said attendees thought they had deterred Trump from the $ 2,000 lawsuit last week. The video surprised even Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who participated in the talks and endorsed the $ 600 figure.
Members of Congress had been debating the $ 600 figure for nearly a week before voting to approve it Monday night.
Trump did not explicitly say he would veto the bill, apparently in the hope that Congress would modify a package that took months to negotiate. The White House had said Sunday that Trump would sign it into law.
Trump has 10 days, not counting Sundays, to veto the bill once he receives it from Congress, which is still processing the massive legislation.
If you veto it, Congress can immediately vote to override it. If Trump doesn’t take any action within 10 days of receipt, excluding Sundays, it would automatically become law unless Congress is postponed. If no action is taken before January 3, when the new Congress is sworn in, the bill would die.
Trump triggered a record 35-day government shutdown two years ago when he rejected a federal spending bill on what he said was insufficient funds to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
Trump also demanded that the bill be stripped of foreign aid, which is included in all annual federal spending bills, and was requested by his own administration last year. He opposed other government activities funded by the 5,500-page bill, such as fish farming and funding for Smithsonian museums.
Some Democratic congressmen, who had seen the aid package as too small a response to a crisis that has killed more than 320,000 Americans and put millions of people out of work, welcomed Trump’s call for higher payments.
Pelosi said the House could vote to increase payments Thursday if House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy agrees.
McCarthy’s aides did not respond to a request for comment.
Disagreement over the amount of stimulus payments has put Republicans in an awkward position. Many of them objected to $ 2,000 as too expensive and would have to challenge their party leader or change their position on those payments.
“Let’s get this into law, and we can have an ongoing discussion about whether there should be additional direct payments or not,” Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said on Fox News.
In Georgia, where control of the United States Senate hinges on a pair of runoff elections on January 5, Democrats pressured sitting Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to say whether they agreed with Trump on that the $ 600 payments were too low. Neither campaign responded to a request for comment.
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