Trump still plans to veto defense spending

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Trump has until Dec. 23 to veto the defense bill for threatening or enacting the measure that would set policy for the Department of Defense next year.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesday that Trump plans to veto the NDAA on objections beyond the absence of a Section 230 repeal, although she did not say when.

“He still plans to veto the NDAA. I don’t have a timeline for that. But he plans to veto it,” McEnany said at a White House press conference.

Both the House and Senate last week passed the annual defense bill by a broad bipartisan vote, enough to override a presidential veto.

Trump’s threat to veto the bill has prompted a swift and sharp bipartisan backlash from lawmakers who have claimed Trump is leveraging forces to settle personal scores. But the potential veto has left Republicans divided on the matter.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said his members will vote to uphold the president’s veto if the measure comes back to Parliament, which could drop the original vote of 335-78-1 below the threshold to override the veto, thus the 59th consecutive year of passage of the NDAA.
House lawmakers say they will shorten the vacation to override possible Trump veto on defense law

Even if the House votes have enough votes to override the veto, the process to do so in the Senate will take several days unless all senators agree to speed up the process.

If Trump were to veto the bill this week, Congress may have plenty of time to vote to lift the veto while it finishes passing a government funding bill and an emerging stimulus deal.

But Senate Chairman Jim Inhofe suggested that if the president waited to veto the legislation, it could force the senate to return for an alternate vote between Christmas and New Year.

“He has a maximum of 10 days, so if he takes that time, it should be sometime between Christmas and New Year, which probably means coming back for that purpose, which doesn’t turn a lot of people on,” Inhofe said.

Inhofe suggested that not all senators would return for such a vote, which would require a two-thirds majority of those entitled to vote to override a veto.

The $ 740 billion bill includes pay increases for the US soldiers, upgrades of equipment and facilities that require more research before withdrawing troops from Germany or Afghanistan, but that hasn’t stopped Trump’s threats.

If Trump successfully vetoes the NDAA, it would affect the “special pay” for thousands of US military personnel in all military departments. Special pay includes raises for service workers in highly skilled positions where there is strong competition from the private sector for personnel.

Trump has said he opposes the bill because it would require a new name of Confederate military-based generals and because it does not repeal Section 230, a law that protects Internet companies from liability for what is posted by them or third parties on their websites.

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