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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump vetoed a broad defense funding bill sent to him by Congress on Wednesday (December 23), complaining that it helps Russia and China and objecting to provisions to change the name of military bases.
The bipartisan bill passed with high enough margins in both houses of Congress that lawmakers would, in theory, override the president’s rejection.
The veto of the 740 billion dollar measure to fund the armed forces for fiscal year 2021 came a day after the American leader, with less than a month in office, threw out a COVID relief bill. -19 of 900 billion dollars separately and general funds for the government asks.
Trump criticized the annual National Defense Authorization Act for failing to respond to his demand to end liability protections for social media companies, known as Section 230, an issue unrelated to the US Department of Defense. USA
He also opposed a provision in the NDAA to rename military bases after the generals of the secessionist south, which supported slavery in the 19th century American civil war.
And he opposed a provision that could hamper his decision to slash US troop levels in Germany, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The NDAA “does not include critical national security measures, includes provisions that do not respect our veterans and the history of our military, and contradicts my Administration’s efforts to put the United States first in our national security and foreign policy actions. “Trump said in a statement.
Without the changes to Section 230, Trump said, the NDAA “is a ‘gift’ to China and Russia.”
‘IMPRUDENCE’
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, criticized Trump’s veto as “an act of recklessness that harms our troops, endangers our security and undermines the will of Congress.”
Both the House and Senate set aside time next week to vote to override the veto, which would be the first such rejection by Congress in his nearly four years in office.
But with the blanket funding bill, including general government finances and COVID-19 relief, still up in the air, it was unclear whether Trump was leveraging both to win concessions.
“I will not pass this bill, which would put the interests of the Washington, DC establishment above those of the American people,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly demanded that the NDAA include changes to Section 230, a part of US communications law that protects social media giants like Facebook and Twitter from liability for content posted by their users.
Since earlier this year, Trump has been angry with social media for censoring or raising questions about the reality of his own posts, especially about the coronavirus pandemic.
But Trump said changing Section 230 was a matter of national security.
“Failure to end the very dangerous national security risk of Section 230 will make our intelligence virtually impossible to perform without everyone knowing what we are doing at each step,” he said in the statement.
He called for the move to change the basic names, which is generally supported by the Pentagon, “for political reasons,” not to mention the legacy of racism and slavery that the names bear.
The veto does not immediately choke funding for the Pentagon, but if the NDAA is not approved soon, funding could be restricted.
“The NDAA has been signed into law every year for 59 consecutive years because it is absolutely vital to our national security and our troops,” said Republican Senator Jim Inhofe.
“This year should be no exception. Our men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform should not be denied what they need, ever.”
