The US House of Lords, with a Republican majority, voted Friday to override Trump’s veto on the $ 741,000 million annual defense budget bill.
The US Senate this Friday plunged for the first time a veto of outgoing president, Donald Trump, into an increasingly tense pulse with the leaders of his party a few days after leaving the White House. The full Senate vote was 81 in favor and 13 against, much higher than the two-thirds majority needed to lift the veto, and it completed the process in Congress to make the defense budget law. after the House of Representatives endorsed that initiative last Monday.
Trump against his party
Trump called Congress’ decision “pathetic” in a post-vote tweet, in a sign that he intends to continue the war that has begun in recent weeks against his party’s leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, and other politicians. republicans.
Trump’s attempt to interfere with the January 6 session in which Congress will ratify the November election victory of President-elect Joe Biden has heightened tensions with McConnell and pledges to power the president in recent weeks to mark. outgoing, which will leave power on January 20.
View more: Trump extends partial suspension of immigration to the United States until March.
Trump’s decision to veto the defense budget for fiscal year 2021 last week was unprecedented in the past 59 years and met fierce opposition in a country that often puts the welfare of its troops above all else.
The details of the law
The president decided to veto the so-called National Defense Authorization Law, in part because it limited his ability to withdraw US troops from Germany, South Korea and Afghanistan, as he had promised.
In addition, the ruler opposed the law because it contains a provision to change the name of a dozen military bases named after the leaders of the Southern Confederation in the Civil War (1861-1865), which are considered a racist symbol for represent those who defended slavery.
Finally, the president wanted the legislation to include a clause to end what is called “section 230,” which protects internet giants like Twitter and Facebook from any legal ramifications for what third parties publish on their websites.
The National Defense Authorization Act serves to fund the Pentagon’s overseas operations and includes salary increases for soldiers, funds for new military equipment, and to pay for health care for troops.
Attempts to increase payments to citizens are failing
In addition to Trump’s veto, tension between the president and Republicans has also increased due to the president’s five-day delay in signing a new pandemic stimulus plan, and demand that it be raised from $ 600 to $ 2,000. direct payments to citizens covered by that law.
View more: Universal Orlando Park reaches its maximum capacity ten minutes after opening
Republican leaders in the Senate on Friday for the fourth consecutive day blocked Democrats’ attempt to increase the amount of these direct transfers to taxpayers with annual incomes below $ 75,000.
This means that the initiative, which the House of Representatives already approved last Monday, will not go ahead for the time being and in any case will have to be considered and voted on again from Sunday, a new Congress that will emerge from the November elections will take office. “(Approving that change) would be socialism for rich people,” McConnell said in a full Senate speech last Friday.
Americans meeting the lease terms started receiving a one-time payment of $ 600 this Friday instead, as contemplated in the stimulus plan approved in December.