GOP-led Senate rebukes Trump, backs military spending $740 billion bill
The US Senate overrides President Donald Trump's veto of the defense bill, handing him the first veto defeat of his presidency weeks before leaving office.
In a rebuke to the outgoing US president on Friday, Republicans joined Democrats to override the presidential veto.
Known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the bill authorizes US military spending and outlines Pentagon policy.
With 81 of the 100 senators voting, the Republican-controlled Senate approved the $740 billion bill to fund the military for the 2021 fiscal year.
The approval of the NDAA in the Senate is the first veto defeat of the president. Eight previous Trump vetoes had been upheld.
Trump refused to sign it into law because it did not repeal certain legal protections for social media platforms and included a provision stripping the names of Confederate generals from military bases, according to Reuters.
“We’ve passed this legislation 59 years in a row. And one way or another, we’re going to complete the 60th annual NDAA and pass it into law before this Congress concludes on Sunday,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had said ahead of the vote.
The Democratic-controlled House has already voted to overturn the veto. Trump called the Senate override pathetic.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump is using his last days in office to sow chaos.
She said the veto override ended Trump’s desperate and dangerous sabotage.
Pelosi called the congressional vote “a resounding rebuke to President Trump’s reckless assault on America’s military and national security.”
The US Senate approved the massive annual military budget amid forecasts of a new Cold War on December 11.
With 84 votes, the annual defense bill surpassed the two-thirds majority. The NDAA bill usually gets the Senate approval vote with strong bipartisan support and veto-proof majorities.
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