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A showdown between Congress and President Donald Trump is looming after the latter once again threatened to veto the bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act.
“THE BIGGEST WINNER OF OUR NEW DEFENSE BILL IS CHINA!” Trump tweeted Monday morning, before repeating a threat he has made several times. “I WILL VETO!”
Previously, the bill drew the ire of the president for not including a rollback of safeguards for social media sites, for requiring the Pentagon to change the names of military installations named for Confederate leaders, and for blocking the planned withdrawals of troops from Afghanistan and Germany.
Linking the bill to China is a new argument that flies against statements made by Republican leaders, including the Senate Armed Services Chair, Sen. Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma, who has touted the defense bill as being tough on China.
The NDAA passed with overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate, setting up what could be the first and only veto override of Trump’s presidency.
The bill passed the Senate by an 84-13 vote on Friday. It passed the House by a vote of 335-78-1 earlier last week.
If Trump follows through on his threat, both chambers of Congress would need two-thirds majorities to override the veto and enact the bill into law. Both earlier votes were well over those thresholds.
The voluminous legislation set Defense Department policy, authorizes personnel end strength, dictates pay and benefits, and drives investment in new and legacy military hardware.
It also provides hundreds of millions of dollars for Guard-related military construction, protects Guard aircraft and units from being eliminated by the Pentagon, and provides six months of transitional health coverage for Guard soldiers and airmen coming off COVID-19 duty under Title 32 orders, among many other provisions.
Inhofe’s counterpart on the SASC, ranking Democrat Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, blasted the president’s latest threat.
“President Trump clearly hasn’t read the bill, nor does he understand what’s in it,” he said. “There are several bipartisan provisions in here that get tougher on China than the Trump administration has ever been.”
Lawmakers in both parties have previously praised this year’s NDAA.
“There isn’t much that happens around Capitol Hill with the kind of track record that the National Defense Authorization Act has, but there’s a reason this bill gets done every single year for the last 59 years: It’s the most important bill we’ll do all year,” Inhofe said. “It’s what the Constitution tells us we have to do. We must protect freedom, democracy and peace, and support our troops. This is the heart of the National Defense Authorization Act, and I look forward to it becoming law before the end of the year.”
